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SOME PRINCIPLES OF 
TEACHING 

AS APPLIED TO THE 
SUNDAY-SCHOOL 



SOME PRINCIPLES OF 
TEACHING 

AS APPLIED TO THE 
SUNDAY-SCHOOL 



BY 

EDGAR W. KNIGHT, A.M., Ph.D. 

Assistant Professor of Education, Trinity College (North Carolina) 

With an Introduction by 

PROFESSOR FRANKLIN N. PARKER, D.D. 
Professor of Biblical Literature, Trinity College 




THE PILGRIM PRESS 

Boston New York Chicago 



y A 1 - 



Copyright 1915 

By THE CONGREGATIONAL SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
AND PUBLISHING SOCIETY 



THE PILGRIM PRESS 
BOSTON 



mw 17 1915 

"©CI.A4I4641 



PREFACE 

One of the most hopeful signs of improvement in the 
work of the Sunday-school is the noticeable increase in 
recent years in books and pamphlets on the training 
of Sunday-school teachers. The scope of work which 
is now regarded as essential for teachers in the Sunday- 
school has gradually enlarged. Knowledge of the 
Bible alone is no longer regarded as the only qualifi- 
cation for those who instruct the youth of the church 
in morals and religion. Not only must they be familiar 
with the Scriptures, the subject-matter to be taught, 
but Sunday-school teachers should also be familiar 
with the best and most practicable principles of teach- 
ing and with certain facts about child life and child 
development. A thorough knowledge of the Bible, 
and how to teach it, and a familiarity with pedagogy and 
with child psychology, are some of the needs of the 
teacher in the Sunday-school today. 

This little book is the result of some work which 
the author did, as leader of a training class of Sunday- 
school teachers in Durham, North Carolina, in the 
winter and spring of 1914, and was suggested by an 
outline prepared for the New York Sunday-school 
Association by Professor George A. Coe, of Union 
Theological Seminary, New York City. The book is 
meant to be a practical aid to those who have had little 
or no opportunity to acquaint themselves with certain 
principles of teaching and certain facts of child psy- 
chology which may be used to advantage in Sunday- 
school teaching. The author believes that any in- 

M 



SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING 

telligent man or woman, of consecration, industry, 
and average ability will find suggestions here which, 
if followed, will eventually improve his or her work 
in the Sunday-school. The book lays no claim to 
being anything more than suggestive of what may be 
done for this great ally and support of the church; 
and it is given to Sunday-school teachers in the hope 
that it may be of some practical service in their work. 

e. w. K. 
Trinity College, 
Durham, North Carolina, 
September, 1914. 



[vi] 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

Preface v 

Introduction ix 

I. Historical 1 

II. The Need for Trained Teachers 16 

III. Successful Sunday-school Teaching. 26 

IV. The Qualifications and Prepara- 

tion of the Teacher 40 

V. Planning the Lesson 59 

VI. Teaching the Lesson 68 

VII. Attention and Interest 88 

VIII. The Art of Questioning 107 

IX. Using the Pupil's Memory 118 

X. The Teacher's Personality 136 

XI. Jesus as a Teacher 146 



[vii] 



INTRODUCTION 

Since the inauguration of the International Lesson 
System for Sunday-schools, the Sunday-school move- 
ment has taken on larger and larger proportions. The 
fact that a very large percentage of church members 
comes from the Sunday-school has emphasized the 
importance of that branch of the church's activity. 
Modern study of the child and the adolescent has 
confirmed with startling emphasis the fact that these 
stages are of crucial importance in determining the 
moral and spiritual character of the future man and 
woman. The development of the common school, 
especially along the lines of scientific pedagogy, has 
had a marked reflex influence upon Sunday-school 
practice. 

Increased knowledge of need and of opportunity has 
increased responsibility. The matter of efficiency in 
doing the work of the Sunday-school has become a live 
question. On all hands it is admitted that the vital 
thing in any school is the teacher. It is often difficult 
to get teachers at all, and still more difficult to get 
competent ones. Many who do volunteer are pain- 
fully conscious of their incompetence. 

This book has been prepared specifically to meet the 
need for trained teachers. The author, Dr. Edgar W. 
Knight, of the Department of Education in Trinity 
College, is a specialist in the history and science of 
education, and is personally deeply interested in the 
work of teacher-training for Sunday-schools. I have 
examined the book with pleasure and found it both 

[ixl 



SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING 

stimulating and suggestive. It is not merely theo- 
retical; it is a workable book, and one that can be used 
in teacher-training classes or by individual workers. 
A specially valuable feature is the list of questions and 
subjects for investigation appended to each chapter. 

Franklin N. Parker. 
Trinity College, 
Durham, North Carolina, 
September, 1914. 



M 



CHAPTER I 
Historical 1 

Religious Education Found among All Peoples 

A historical study of religious and moral education 
shows that some form of religious education is found 
among all peoples, whether primitive or civilized. It 
is found in the earliest history of Egypt, when the 
priest class was dominant; it is found among the 
Assyrians, the Indians, and the Chinese, and among 
the educational ideals of the Greeks and the Romans. 
Early Hebrew life well illustrates the purposes and uses 
of religious education. Even during the nomadic 
period in the development of this people, when the 
patriarch gathered his household around him for the 
purpose of religious instruction, a great importance 
was attached to this form of education. Religious 
education began at the father's knee and formed one 
of the best examples of the earliest and most effective 
moral and religious teaching. Note the following: 2 

" For I know him [Abraham], that he will command his 
children and his household after him, and that they shall 
keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment, that 
the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath 
spoken of him." 

And the following exhortation to obedience suggests 
a custom which helps to explain the religious character 

1 This brief discussion of the historical development of the Sunday- 
school movement is based largely on Cope's excellent study of the 
same subject, The Evolution of the Sunday-school, published by 
The Pilgrim Press, Boston, and on other books referred to in this 
chapter. 

2 Genesis 18': 19. 

[1] 



SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING 

of the Hebrew race, and how the law became such a 
guiding force in all phases of their life: 1 

" And thou shalt teach them [the words of the law] dili- 
gently to thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou 
sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, 
and when thou liest down, and when thou riseth up. And 
thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they 
shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt 
write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates." 

All the way from the prominence of the Hebrew 
scribe and interpreter of the law, through the beginnings 
and the development of the synagogue, where the law 
was read and explained at stated times, certain features 
of religious education and its methods may be traced. 
Instruction in the synagogue may not have been 
altogether verbal or similar to the instruction found in 
our Bible schools and other forms of religious education 
today; but it is important for Sunday-school workers 
to know that the synagogue became the center of the 
educational life of those people and that all phases of 
their life were, more or less, religious. 

Early Sunday-Schools 

It has become customary and rather popular in 
descriptions of the origin and early development of the 
modern Sunday-school movement to begin with these 
early peoples, the Egyptians, the Assyrians, the 
Hebrews, and the Greeks and Romans. Attempts 
have been made to trace certain features of the modern 
Sunday-school from them through the early monastic 
practices and customs, and through the practices of 
the early Christian Church. Such passages as those 
cited above are frequently given as proof that the 
Sunday-school, in its essentials, goes back to these 

1 Deuteronomy 6 : 7-9. 

[2] 



HISTORICAL 

early patriarchal days or to even earlier times. These 
injunctions, however, do not describe the Sunday- 
school, but rather indicate, the "normal educational 
activities which were usually religious either in content 
of study or in intent." The Sunday-school as we 
know it is a special institution, connected with and 
fostered by individual churches, and designed to give 
systematic, and regular instruction in morals and 
religion, a part of training for which public educational 
agencies make little or no provision. It may be defined 
as " an institution organized by a religious body for the 
education of youth in the religious life and holding 
its principal periods of instruction on the day of rest." 
It is an outgrowth of the period of popular education 
when a new attention was given to child life and child 
needs, near the end of the eighteenth century. In 
this respect it is something of a modern institution. 

Robert Raikes Not the Founder 

In the early history of the Sunday-school, Robert 
Raikes, who is sometimes called the "father of the 
Sunday-school," is a most prominent figure, and marks 
a very advanced stage in the development of religious 
education. Raikes, however, is not altogether en- 
titled to the distinction which he has enjoyed. Men 
like Erasmus, Luther, Francis Xavier, Carlo Borromeo, 
Count Zinzendorf, and others emphasized religious 
education in their teachings, and in a form similar to 
that which Raikes himself advocated, and some of 
them as early as the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. 
Several years before Raikes' interest in work of this 
kind began, Miss Hannah Ball was working in England 
in the interest of religious education. She organized 
children into groups and taught them the Bible and 
catechism immediately before the church service on 

[3] 



SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING 

Sunday morning. And the work of John Frederick 
Oberlin, in the latter part of the eighteenth century, 
is similar to that done by Miss Ball. It seems safe to 
say, therefore, that Raikes "Neither invented the 
religious instruction of children nor originated the 
present day Sunday-school, ..." Moreover, it is 
interesting to note that the schools which Raikes 
founded and encouraged and those which flourished 
under his influence were very unlike present day Sun- 
day-schools. They were, first of all, designed and 
intended for poor people who had no other educational 
opportunity; and so exclusive was their attention to 
the poor and destitute that they soon came to be 
called the "ragged schools." They attempted to 
teach reading and writing, and in some instances, 
probably, the elements of arithmetic were taught. 
They were entirely separate from the church and met 
with more or less opposition from the clergy, and were 
maintained largely as private enterprises and regarded 
as charitable efforts at general education. Not until 
after the middle of the nineteenth century were they, 
in England, regarded as an integral part of the church 
organization and equipment. Compare this descrip- 
tion with a description of the modern Sunday-school. 
The latter is open to all alike, rich and poor, young and 
old, learned and ignorant. It emphasizes the teaching 
of the Bible, religion and morals. It is a vital part of 
the organization of the church, and is fostered entirely 
by the church. 

The Work of Raikes 

Robert Raikes was born in Gloucester, England, in 
1736. He received a fairly good education, lived in 
comfortable circumstances, and early interested himself 
in philanthropic efforts. He was a "practical-minded 

[4] 



HISTORICAL 

Christian." His interest in the poor children in the 
pin factories of Gloucester led him to establish schools 
for their training in reading, writing, and elementary 
arithmetic, the Bible and the catechism, and religious 
truths. The children came to his schools "soon after 
ten in the morning and stay until twelve; they were 
then to go home and stay till one; and after reading a 
lesson they were to be conducted to church. After 
church they were to be employed in repeating the 
catechism till half past five, and then to be dismissed, 
with an injunction to go home without making a 
noise; and by no means to play in the street." 1 Teach- 
ing in these schools was at first not voluntary; the 
teachers were paid for their services. Mr. Raikes 
"inquired if there were any decent, well-disposed 
women in the neighborhood who kept schools for 
teaching to read. I presently was directed to four: 
to those I applied and made an agreement with them 
to receive as many children as I should send them upon 
the Sundays, whom they were to instruct in reading 
and the Church Catechism. For this I engaged to 
pay them each a shilling for their day's employment." 2 
Later on, however, voluntary teachers were secured. 
It is said that "ladies of fashion undertook the work 
of Sunday-school teaching." Certain it is that the 
work which Raikes was doing was received with some 
favor and the impetus which he gave the movement 
caused it to expand and to extend its influence. At 
the time of his death, there were many schools in 
England which were doing work similar to that which 
Raikes was doing. Raikes was much in earnest and 
seemed "swayed with passion for the children"; and 

1 Turner's Sunday School Recommended (Appendix), p. 41. See 
also Trumbull's Yale Lectures on the Sunday School, p. 110. 

2 From the Gentleman's Magazine; quoted in Trumbull, p. 110, 

[5] 



SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING 

his interest in the work hastened the development of 
wholesome opinion on the subject of public education. 
It is true that the Sunday-school movement has a 
distinct place in the history of English public education. 
Green 1 specifically says: "The Sunday-Schools estab- 
lished by Mr. Raikes were the beginnings of popular 
education." Raikes was "a prophet of the modern 
system of public education, and the school on Sunday 
was the first expression of his vision. " 

The Beginnings in the United States 

Sunday-school work began in this country near the 
close of the eighteenth century when Raikes' plan was 
brought to America. Here, however, two conditions 
were found in striking contrast to the conditions which 
surrounded the movement in England. First, the 
opportunities and facilities for general elementary 
education were, even at that early time, more extensive 
in the United States than in England, and there was 
less need for separate schools for the poor and destitute 
children. Second, the feeling which some of the 
churches had against the Sunday-school movement 
perhaps "increased the sense of responsibility on the 
part of the churches and helped to bring about a dis- 
tinctive type of organization in the United States, 
namely, Sunday-schools created and maintained by 
the churches as well as meeting in church buildings. " 2 
But little is known about the earlier Sunday-schools 
in this country. Bishop Asbury, it appears, estab- 
lished one in Virginia as early as 1786, but little is 
known of the school except its beginning. A Methodist 
Conference in session in Charleston, South Carolina, 
in 1790, ordered the establishment of Sunday-schools, 

1 Short History of the English People, Vol. II, p. 359. 

8 Cyclopedia of Education, Vol. V. Article, "Sunday-schools." 

[6] 



HISTORICAL 

in or near the church or place of worship, and provision 
was to be made for securing persons "to teach gratis 
all who will attend and have capacity to learn, from 
six o'clock in the morning till ten, and from two o'clock 
in the afternoon till six, when it does not interfere 
with public worship." However, "No record is found 
of Sunday-schools organized in consequence of this 
minute." 1 In December of the same year a meeting 
was called in Philadelphia to consider the importance 
of the Sunday-school work, and the result was the 
formation, early in January, 1791, of "The First- 
Day or Sunday-school Society." One of its principal 
purposes was to secure religious instruction for the 
poor children of the city. The organization is another 
proof of the missionary spirit which was so much in 
evidence in all Christendom during this period. A 
Sunday-school was begun in Boston in 1791, one in 
New York in 1793, one in Paterson, New Jersey, in 
1794, one in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, in 1797, and in 
1800 one was begun in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In 
the year 1803 and the years immediately following, 
several schools were started in New York City by Mr. 
and Mrs. Divie Bethune; in 1803 one was started in 
Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and in 1804 one was 
started in Baltimore, Maryland. Systematic efforts 
in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, resulted in an organization 
for Sunday-school work which seems to have been 
successful; and in 1811 a new impetus was given the 
movement in Philadelphia. A local organization for 
combining efforts in Sunday-school work was formed 
in New York in 1816, and a similar organization was 
formed in Boston the same year, and one in Phila- 
delphia in 1817. From these Sunday-school "unions" 

1 Trumbull, Yale Lectures on the Sunday-school, p. 123; also Brown, 
Sunday School Movements in America, p. 23. 

[7] 



SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING 

grew the American Sunday-school Union, which was 
organized in 1824. This organization gave attention 
to the publication of Sunday-school literature, the 
selection of scriptural lesson materials, and the planting 
of schools in communities where they were needed. 
In 1832 Cincinnati was made the headquarters of this 
organization, and a systematic campaign for planning 
schools in the Mississippi Valley began. In two 
years, more than twenty-eight hundred schools were 
established in that region. 1 

Adoption by the Church 

It has already been pointed out that, in England 
particularly, there was opposition, on the part of the 
church and the clergy, to the Sunday-school move- 
ment. There was first of all, objection to educational 
activities on the Sabbath; and any effort, outside the 
church, to carry on any form of religious education, 
the clergy regarded as an invasion of their rights. 
But the church soon became interested in the move- 
ment in this country, adopted the Sunday-school, and 
recognized it as a vital agency for training the youth 
of the church. This marks a great advance in the 
development of the Sunday-school; it has been called 
the "American Sunday-school Idea. It meant that 
this school became, not a temporary expedient to 
rescue poor and ignorant children, but a permanent 
institution, discharging a definite function in the life 
of the church. . . The school met a real need in the 
life of the church, — the need of a specific agency or 
form of organization for the nurture of the young in 
the religious life. It also became a definite department 
of the church, suited to the life and needs of the child." 

1 Trumbull, Yale Lectures on the Sunday-school, p. 123. 

[8] 



HISTORICAL 

Denominational Development 

The Methodist Church has been given credit for 
being the first denomination to recognize the import- 
ance of, and to make official provision for, Sunday- 
school work. As early as 1824, the General Conference 
of that denomination passed resolutions providing for 
Sunday-schools and for teaching the catechism in 
them. Three years later the Church organized a 
Sunday-school Union which, after 1840 and until the 
present time, has had a very successful and efficient 
career. In recent years "it has led in the campaign 
for the effective gradation of Sunday-school material 
and for all that has made for the thorough adoption 
of educational methods in the schools." A Sunday- 
school Society was organized by the Unitarians in 1827 
which has had a useful life. In 1830 the Lutheran 
Church organized a Sunday-school Union. The work 
of the Congregational Church in developing Sunday- 
school interests became very active in 1832. The 
Baptists early recognized the importance of Sunday- 
school work and "were the pioneers in the preparation 
of advanced texts for teachers." They have also been 
very active in promoting the training of teachers for 
work in the Sunday-school. The Presbyterians have 
always been interested in the Sunday-school movement 
and have actively promoted the educational interests 
of the church. The Episcopalians have also developed 
considerable interest in this phase of church work. 
In fact all of the greater Protestant denominations now 
regard the Sunday-school as a vital part of the organi- 
zation and work of the church. In recent years 
especially, nearly all the churches are turning attention 
to the educational part of their work, for which they 
recognize the need of trained experts. And the har- 
mony that exists in the combined efforts of the various 

[9] 



SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING 

denominations, as shown by the International Sunday- 
school Association, is a most encouraging sign. 

Some Suggestions of Its Growth 

This brief description of the origin and early de- 
velopment of the Sunday-school movement is intended 
merely as a guide to those teachers who should like to 
pursue a study of it more in detail. It is meant to be 
suggestive rather than exhaustive. It does serve to 
show, however, that the Sunday-school has had a 
steady growth; and a consideration of present day 
interests in Sunday-school work and religious education 
in general suggests possibilities of this great agency of 
the church which have not yet been realized. A more 
detailed description of the movement cannot be under- 
taken here. Enough has been given to show how the 
Sunday-school has grown from a more or less sporadic, 
unorganized institution, operating independently of 
the church, to a highly organized institution connected 
with the church and forming one of the most important 
parts of its organization. It also shows marvelous 
internal developments: formerly the children were 
grouped together without reference to their age, their 
sex, their previous training or capacities, or any of 
those factors which so effectively condition the teaching 
and training processes in the public schools. Today 
the children are grouped in graded classes; and if the 
Sunday-school is well organized and properly managed, 
all the factors which have to do with successful teach- 
ing in the Sunday-school are carefully considered. 
Formerly, the Sunday-school was regarded as a 
charitable attempt at general elementary education 
for the poor and destitute children; attention was 
given to reading, writing, and probably to some 
arithmetic. Today emphasis is placed on moral and 

[10] 



HISTORICAL 

religious instruction alone, with the Bible as the 
principal textbook. This steady development in the 
United States is said to be due to: 

1. The adoption of the Sunday-school by the 
church and the church's recognition of it as a vital 
part of its organization, and the decreasing attention 
paid to religious education by public educational 
agencies. 

2. The voluntary- teaching policy which has pre- 
vailed in the United States. Unpaid workers in the 
Sunday-school seem more normal to the general life 
of the American people. 

3. The increasing need for a more efficient organi- 
zation and for better trained workers. The Sunday- 
school has been severely criticized for its loose edu- 
cational methods, and its organization and manage- 
ment. "Its peculiar function in the United States, 
especially its unusual position as a voluntary institution 
brought about a higher type of efficiency and a closer 
approximation, markedly in recent years, to edu- 
cational ideals." 1 

Some Suggestions of Further Improvement 

In spite of its steady growth in organization and its 
advancement to a real place in the life of the church, 
the Sunday-school needs to make certain reforms and 
improvements in its curriculum, its methods, and in 
other features of its work. 

1. The curriculum has grown and developed very 
slowly. In addition to the original subject matter 
taught in the Sunday-school, occasional lessons on 
temperance and similar subjects have been introduced, 
and missionary lessons have now and then been 
brought in also. But it was not until 1908 that the 

1 Cyclopedia of Education, Vol. V. Article, "Sunday-schools." 

[ii] 



SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING 

International Sunday-school Association gave its 
lesson committee authority to prepare a graded course 
of lessons for use in the Sunday-schools throughout 
the country. Before this was done, however, many 
schools had adopted graded lessons of their own. 
The Religious Education Association, an organization 
which was formed in 1903, seems to have had consider- 
able influence in getting the International Sunday- 
school Association to take this important and advanced 
step. More attention is needed today in this direction. 
The lesson material needs to be so graded, arranged 
and adapted to the varying needs, interests and 
capacities of the children in the Sunday-school that it 
will more effectively promote their religious growth. 
The present interests of the child and his religious 
capacities must control the course of study used in 
the Sunday-school. The pupils must be graded, and 
the course of study must be graded to fit their needs 
and capacities. 

2. More attention must be given to teacher-train- 
ing. Just as no sound progress can be had in secular 
education without trained and well equipped teachers, 
religious education cannot longer afford to be left to 
chance method. It cannot go forward except by those 
who are trained in sound educational theory and other- 
wise qualified to guide practice in religious educational 
work. Moreover, religion should be given advantage 
of these essential principles which have so much 
increased the efficiency of nearly every phase of our 
public educational agencies. The Sunday-school can- 
not afford to neglect the aid that is sure to come from 
knowledge and practice of the best educational theory 
of the day. 

3. Some reforms are also needed in the matter of 
financial support of the Sunday-school. The method 

[12] 



HISTORICAL 

of supporting the Sunday-school by soliciting con- 
tributions from the children every Sunday is being 
objected to from many quarters. The children should 
indeed be early taught the valuable lesson of giving. 
But they should be taught what they are giving for. 
The Sunday-school should be a "church school," and 
included in the regular running expenses of the church. 
The church must learn to spend more money on this 
phase of its work, in equipment, libraries for teachers 
and pupils, and in otherwise providing for facilities 
for greater service to the church and the community. 
The Sunday-school is a church school, — "it is 
the church engaged in certain of its functions of 
instruction. " 

4. The teaching time should be increased. The 
average time given to instruction is about thirty minutes 
a week. This is entirely too brief a period to be devoted 
to such an important subject as that which is taught 
in the Sunday-school. At this rate of teaching, it 
would require a child nearly twenty-five years to com- 
plete the English, mathematics, or Latin course in 
any well-organized city high school, or nearly fifty 
years to do the work in English or mathematics in any 
well-organized city school system. It has been 
proposed, in order to remedy this weakness, that we 
adopt the method used in France, where pupils, whose 
parents want them to be placed under religious in- 
struction, are excused from public schools on one 
afternoon each week. Another suggestion is that the 
time already available for religious instruction on 
Sunday morning be made more fruitful by adopting 
correct and scientific methods of teaching, by shorten- 
ing the opening and closing exercises, or by lengthening 
the Sunday-school session. Sunday-schools need not 
expect the public school authorities, however, to grant 

[13] 



SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING 

any such concessions as may be had under the French 
system until the churches are better equipped and 
better qualified in point of well organized lesson 
material and properly trained teachers, for more 
effective teaching service. 1 

SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY 
Books 

Candler, The History of the Sunday-school, Phillips and 
Hunt, New York. 

Coe and Cope, Article " Sunday-schools " in Cyclopedia 
of Education, edited by Paul Monroe, The Macmillan Com- 
pany, New York. 

Cope, The Evolution of the Sunday-school, The Pilgrim 
Press, Boston. 

Cope, The Modern Sunday-school in Principle and Prac- 
tice, The Pilgrim Press, Boston. 

Cunnyngham, The History of the Sunday-school, Smith 
and Lamar, Nashville. 

Graves, A History of Education before the Middle Ages, 
The Macmillan Company, New York. 

Haslett, The Pedagogical Bible School, F. H. Revell 
Company, New York. 

Mead, Modern Methods in Sunday-school Work, Dodd, 
Mead and Company, New York. 

Monroe, Textbook in the History of Education, The Mac- 
millan Company, New York. 

Trumbull, Yale Lectures on the Sunday-school, Charles 
Scribner's Sons, New York. 

Exercises 

1. How may a knowledge of the history of the Sunday- 
school movement help the Sunday-school teacher? 

2. How did the service in the early synagogue resemble a 
modern Sunday-school service? 

3. What is the difference between teaching and preaching? 

4. What is the advantage of the opening and closing 
exercises in the Sunday-school? 

1 Cyclopedia of Education, Vol. V. Article, " Sunday-schools." 

[14] 



HISTORICAL 

5. What were the catechetical schools? The catechu- 
menal schools? 

6. Why should Sunday-school pupils be graded in classes 
as they are in the public school? 

7. What is the advantage of the graded lesson materials 
in the Sunday-school? 

8. Make out a year's course of study in the Sunday-school 
for a group of children eight or ten years of age. 

9. Give the principal facts connected with the organiza- 
tion and development of the International Sunday-school 
Association. 

10. What is the purpose of the Religious Education Associa- 
tion ? 

11. Give the principal facts in the life of Robert Raikes 
and his interest in the Sunday-school. 

12. Outline the development of (1) the Sunday-school 
curriculum (course of study), and (2) teacher-training in the 
Sunday-school. 

13. How do the Catholics care for the religious education 
of their youth? How do the Jews care for the religious educa- 
tion of their children ? 

14. In what country are Sunday-schools most numerous? 
Why? 



[15] 



CHAPTER II 
The Need for Trained Teachers 

The Problem 

The Sunday-school has been called the "noblest 
development of the nineteenth century." The past 
one hundred years have seen the origin and develop- 
ment of more agencies for human betterment and 
human progress than any preceding centuries since the 
Christian era. In the long list of these worthy or- 
ganizations and institutions the modern Sunday-school 
occupies imperial rank, and as an agency for far-reach- 
ing reformation and effective training, it has possi- 
bilities which have not yet been realized. Born of a 
movement which gave unusual attention to child life 
and child development, and which has emphasized an 
extension of elementary education, and encouraged by 
the religious revival which found a part of its best 
expression in the Wesleyan movement, the Sunday- 
school has had rapid growth. But its advance in a 
career of usefulness is met by the same difficulty which 
has encountered and which still encounters public 
educational work. This difficulty is the task of 
securing, training, and maintaining a body of com- 
petent teachers for the work of all departments, who 
have a proper appreciation of the work in which they 
are engaged. In the Sunday-school this problem is 
particularly persistent and appears to be growing more 
difficult. 

How the Problem is Being Solved 

This problem of teacher-training is being met in two 
ways. In some instances effort is being made to train 

[16] 



NEED FOR TRAINED TEACHERS 

the teachers; in other cases professionally trained 
teachers in the public schools are paid for their services 
in the Sunday-schools, and it has been predicted that 
more churches will seek a solution of the difficulty in 
this direction. But most of us are opposed to this 
plan, and it is useless to think of abandoning the 
traditional, voluntary, unpaid teaching service in the 
Sunday-school. This voluntary service has its weak- 
ness, but it also has its strength; and the great need for 
the modern Sunday-school is to train these volunteers 
for teaching service. Unless they be trained properly 
and speedily, this great part of the church work will 
sooner or later lose its power in the church, and the 
future will account the work of the present in this 
enterprise a failure. 

Public Education has Lessons for the Sunday- 
School 

The Sunday-school can learn much from the ex- 
perience through which secular education has passed. 
The growing tendency to close and careful supervision 
of instruction in our public schools; the increasing 
activity for training prospective teachers; and the 
attention that is being given to training and making 
more skilful those already in service, are wholesome 
signs, and illustrate a rapidly increasing ideal for all 
secular teachers. This same need is intense in the 
Sunday-school; and the ideal is worthy of religious 
instruction as well as of secular education. Here, as 
nowhere else in our entire educational scheme, is not 
only an obvious lack of skilful teaching, which is 
hampering the power and effect of the Sunday-school, 
but there is evident a lack of purpose of this form of 
education, on the part, too frequently, of pastors, 
officers and teachers. Sometime ago a list of questions 

[17] 



SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING 

on the Sunday-school and other organizations in the 
church was sent to one hundred pastors of churches 
whose membership ranged all the way from thirty to 
more than twenty-seven hundred, representing ten 
different Protestant denominations. One of the ques- 
tions was: "What is the main purpose of each organi- 
zation in your church scheme?" 



Purpose of Sunday-School Little Understood 

The answers to this question form another basis for 
the statement that there is a sore lack of purpose for 
the various organizations of the church. Many of 
the pastors failed to answer the question; others gave 
a "general purpose" for the organization of their 
churches. When interviewed later, some of these 
pastors "frankly admitted that they had no definite 
purpose in mind, and others seemed to search their 
mind for what they had read from the founders or 
promoters of such movements." Whatever the answer, 
the majority of these pastors showed that in too many 
instances there was no aim definite enough to be easily 
stated. When there is no goal to be reached in any 
enterprise or activity no difficulties appear, and success 
of course cannot be determined because there is then 
no measure of success. 

The Real Purpose 

What is the purpose of the Sunday-school? What 
should it seek to do? Whether we realize it or not, 
the Sunday-school is the result of a constantly growing 
demand for some definite, organized form of religious 
instruction and training. It illustrates the supreme 
need for training for right and useful living. It is 

[18] 



NEED FOR TRAINED TEACHERS 

rooted in the idea that religion is growth. All Jewish 
history and all New Testament ideas illustrate this 
truth. The teaching of Jesus himself abounds in such 
metaphors and comparisons as the increase of the 
leaven, the gradual growth of the mustard seed. The 
idea of growth, therefore, should be fundamental to 
all Sunday-school teaching. The aim of this part of 
the church work is spiritual and its one function and 
purpose is to develop intelligent and effective Christian 
lives and to train intelligent and useful leaders for the 
work of the church. That church which neglects to 
make suitable provision for this very important work 
must necessarily call into service teachers and leaders 
whose preparation is not equal to the demand of the 
duties which they are to perform. This accounts for 
the large number of Sunday-schools whose purpose is 
vague and the still larger number of Sunday-school 
teachers who work earnestly, no doubt, but blindly, 
and whose aim is not definite. 

How It Can Be Realized 

The purpose of the Sunday-school, however, can 
never be properly realized until the need for trained 
teachers in it has been met. Most of the teachers and 
officers who every year enlist in Sunday-school work, 
volunteer or are urged into service with little infor- 
mation and less training for the peculiar duties await- 
ing them there. If we believe that moral worth and 
spiritual growth depend on religious convictions and 
ideals, which are the result of training, the opportunity 
which the Sunday-school has today is unparalleled in 
history. But this opportunity can never be taken 
advantage of until we have trained teachers to achieve 
these possibilities. There are indeed among the men 
and women who work in the Sunday-school those 

[19] 



SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING 

whose earnestness and zeal challenge favorable com- 
parison with workers in any realm. But here as 
nowhere else, the waste from inefficiency is too great. 
Most superintendents are very grateful to get almost 
anybody to teach classes on Sundays. Fully seventy- 
five per cent of "our teachers," declared one superin- 
tendent, "are not the ones we should choose, but we 
must take whom we can get." Teaching in the 
Sunday-school has too long been regarded largely as a 
matter of conscience and duty; and too often it is 
looked at as a duty to be assumed or neglected by 
anybody. Zeal and devotion are often taken as ability 
to teach. These are indeed qualities which are indis- 
pensable in any successful teacher, but they are 
insufficient in themselves. Preparation and inspira- 
tion, rather than inspiration alone, are needed. 

Inefficient Teaching 

Inefficient teaching in the Sunday-school is, in a 
large measure, responsible for the prevalent criticism 
that this part of the work of the church is losing ground. 
Three-fourths of the boys who enter the Sunday-school 
leave it before they are eighteen years of age, and 
practically everyone of them is able to give good 
reasons for leaving: "Nothing vital in the teaching," 
"never an inspiration," "monotonous," "disconnected 
knowledge of Bible stories," "they don't show us 
anything to do," "not enough practical study," 
"nothing to do with practical life." These and others 
are the reasons they give for preferring some other 
place to the Sunday-school on Sunday morning. The 
good teacher, whether in the church school or secular 
school, makes her teaching vital and inspiring, and she 
does it at any cost; she has never been charged with 
being monotonous; she connects the apparently dis- 

[20] 



NEED FOR TRAINED TEACHERS 

connected Bible stories, and by skilful comparisons and 
rich illustrations makes biblical knowledge real and 
living; she gives each child in her group something to 
do and relates the work of her class to the every day 
life of the children in it. When all of our Sunday- 
school teachers are able to do these things, charges 
against inefficiency in the instruction of the Sunday- 
school will no longer be made, the so called "teen age" 
will be less a problem there, attendance will increase, 
and this part of the work of the church will bring in 
rich returns. 

The Problem Important 

Already the church depends upon the Sunday-school 
for fully eighty per cent of its membership. In many 
cases the percentage is greater perhaps. The expendi- 
tures for equipment and maintenance of the church 
are usually divided ninety and one-half percent on 
the church and nine and one-half percent on the 
Sunday-school. Protestantism needs, as never before, 
to know the importance of its educational work; the 
Sunday-school should be made a more vital part of 
the church organization, receiving its fair share of the 
financial support. Definite and systematic plans for 
training its teachers should be provided and more 
attention should be given to training leaders for its 
educational activities. But the zeal and devotion of 
amateurs on which the church has so long depended for 
its educational work, have resulted in a certain loss of 
respect for lay religious teaching. The Sunday-school 
has come to be regarded as an unimportant part of the 
work of the church; the loose and easy methods of 
the Sunday-school have come also to be objects of 
disgust and derision; the venerable function of the lay 
religious teacher has fallen somewhat into a neglect, 

[21] 



SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING 

a condition which seems to threaten the very life 
source of much that the church hopes to accomplish. 

The Problem Complex 

Where a people are homogeneous and where religion 
is not separated from education, problems of religious 
instruction are very simple. Among such a people 
religion permeates all life. But the separation of 
religious and secular education among us, and the 
growing complex conditions in our social life, have 
thrown new responsibilities on the church and the 
home, for which neither is adequately prepared. 
There has been a gradual transfer to the school of 
obligations and responsibilities which were once 
primarily lodged in the home. With all these changes, 
however, certain fundamental issues have remained 
unchanged. The one issue in society today, for 
example, is the moral issue, and we must look to the 
church or Bible school to meet this. To give moral 
and religious instruction a new dignity, a new im- 
portance, and a more vital aim is today our most 
urgent need, a need which implies a new emphasis on 
teaching. To meet the new demands which are being 
or will be made on the teachers, provision must be 
made for properly training them. Then and then 
only will we realize the possibilities of this new form of 
education. 

We Must Train Leaders 

Safe and sound progress in religious education must 
not be left to chance method; it must depend on trained 
leadership, those who are qualified to guide practice. 
Why not give religious education the advantages of 
those essential educational principles which have 
increased the efficiency of practically every form of 

[22] 



NEED FOR TRAINED TEACHERS 

our public educational system? Why should not 
pastors and superintendents insist that their teachers 
know at least some of the elementary principles of 
teaching? Why should we in teaching the most 
important subject in the whole range of our educational 
scheme, be satisfied with anything less than the best 
in sound educational theory? Why should we as 
Sunday-school workers not use any and all legitimate 
devices which have been helpful in the public schools? 
The laws of pedagogy and the principles of teaching 
are the same everywhere, whether they be applied to 
the teaching of arithmetic and geography, or the story 
of Samuel, Daniel or the Good Samaritan. Why 
should not Sunday-school teachers and officers know, 
for example, something definite about developing child 
life, the child's native equipment, his impulses, instincts, 
capacities, and all other native tendencies, so as to use 
these in the teaching process? Child study has revo- 
lutionized elementary teaching in public schools. The 
"doctrine of growth" should be as heartily received in 
one form of education as in another; and the church 
school, of all schools, can ill afford to refuse the aid 
that the best educational theory and practice of the 
day can give. 

False Notion of Functions of Sunday-School 

The objection and indifference to systematic teacher- 
training, based on sound educational principles, are 
based on the violent assumption that the aim of the 
Sunday-school is to impress and to convert rather than 
to instruct and to train. This objection frequently 
comes from unexpected sources, — from pastors and 
Sunday-school workers who hold, with many others, 
that skilful teaching is less important than "warm 
appeals to the feelings and earnest exhortations to the 

[23] 



SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING 

conscience" of the pupils. Such appeals and exhorta- 
tions have their places in all forms of education, 
whether religious or secular. But there is no basis 
for the belief that a study of the principles of teaching 
and their application to religious education, will replace 
warmth and enthusiasm and feeling with coldness and 
indifference. The Sunday-school teaching, above all 
others, needs both skill and enthusiasm. Enthusiasm 
does not mean lack of skill — in fact the skilled teacher 
is often the enthusiastic one — and skill never kills 
enthusiasm and warmth for the work. Give the 
church enthusiastic and well-trained men and women 
as teachers in the Sunday-school and its progress will 
be unprecedented. 

SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY 

Books 

Athearn, The Church School, The Pilgrim Press, Boston. 

Cope, The Evolution of the Sunday-school, The Pilgrim 
Press, Boston. 

DuBois, The Point of Contact in Teaching, Dodd, Mead 
and Company, New York. 

Hamill, Sunday-school Teacher-training, Smith and 
Lamar, Nashville. 

Haslett, The Pedagogical Bible School, F. H. Revell 
Company, New York. 

McElfresh, The Training of Sunday-school Teachers and 
Officers, The Pilgrim Press, Boston. 

Slattery, A Guide for Teachers of Training Classes, The 
Pilgrim Press, Boston. 

The Sunday-school Teacher's Pedagogy, Griffith and Row- 
land Press, Philadelphia. 

Wells, the Teacher that Teaches, The Pilgrim Press, 
Boston. 

Exercises 

1. Why is the Sunday-school necessary? 

2. Why should teachers in the Sunday-school have 
special preparation for their work? 

[24] 



NEED FOR TRAINED TEACHERS 

3. Name three laws of teaching which you use in your 
work as a teacher in the Sunday-school. 

4. What is the difference between instruction and training? 

5. Is teaching an art or a science? 

6. How much training have the teachers in your school 
had for their work? 

7. What is your school doing to train the teachers already 
in service and to equip promising young people in the church 
for teaching in the Sunday-school? What can it do? 

8. How often do the teachers in your school hold teachers' 
meetings ? 

9. What effort are you making to improve your teaching 
in the Sunday-school? 

10. Does your school have a library for its teachers? 



[25] 



CHAPTER III 

Successful Sunday-School Teaching 

Some Questions and Answers 

Suppose we begin a consideration of this topic by a 
few simple but suggestive questions. What is the 
Sunday-school? What is its aim? What is a Sunday- 
school class? What is its aim? What is a Sun- 
day-school lesson? What is its aim? When is a 
Sunday-school teacher successful? What is successful 
Sunday-school teaching? 

A group of Sunday-school teachers in a teacher- 
training class were recently asked the following ques- 
tions: 

1. How do you know that the class you teach is a 
successful one? 

2. How can you tell whether or not the lesson is 
taught well in your class? 

3. What do you regard as the principal business of 
the teacher of a Sunday-school class? 

Some of the answers given to the first question were: 

"The interest which my pupils take in my class is 
evidence to me that the class is a success." 

"The enthusiasm which my pupils have for the work 
convinces me that my class is a successful one." 

"When the indifference of my students turns to 
interest I consider my class successful." 

"When the members of my class attend without 
' enticement' I think the class a success." 

"The interest which my pupils take in the discussion 
of the lesson is usually a measure of success in my 
class." 

[26] 



SUCCESSFUL SUNDAY-SCHOOL TEACHING 

"When the lesson is properly prepared and properly- 
taught I regard my class as a successful one." 

These answers came from teachers in a large city 
church. They were urged to consider the questions 
carefully before attempting to answer them so that 
random answers might be avoided. The instructor 
was anxious to see what, in the minds of most of the 
teachers, constituted successful Sunday-school teach- 
ing. Note the answers given above, compare with 
your own idea of a successful class, and then try to 
formulate a statement of the difference between 
successful and unsuccessful teaching in the Sunday- 
school. In other words, what would you mean if you 
were to say: "I have a successful Sunday-school class?" 
Is your idea of successful teaching in the Sunday-school 
different from the ideas expressed in the answers above? 

The second question, "How can you tell whether or 
not the lesson is taught well in your class?" seemed 
easier to answer than the first. Some of the answers 
are included in the following: 

"My class is well taught when I follow a plan." 

"My class is well taught when I have an aim and 
keep it." 

"My class is well taught when I have in mind the 
personal experience and interests of the members of 
the class and try to adapt the lesson to their individual 
needs." 

"I know the lesson is being taught well when every 
member of the class is interested in the lesson." (Note 
this answer carefully. What did this teacher probably 
mean by being "interested in the lesson"?) 

"The lesson is well taught when I can hold the 
attention of the class." (Note this also. How can a 
teacher tell when she is holding the attention of the 
class ?) 

[27] 



SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING 

"I consider the lesson taught well when theboys discuss 
the questions spontaneously and ask questions freely." 

One teacher said that the "interest of the pupils, 
the questions they ask, and their discussions" were 
signs to her that she was teaching the lesson well. 

Another teacher stated that "the response of a pupil 
who is well taught can be felt rather than described. 
I do not always get this response; when I do, it is the 
greatest inspiration to work harder for it next time." 
(Note this answer. What did the teacher mean by 
"response"?) 

"I do not think the lesson is taught well when the 
teacher does all the talking and thinking." 

"The lesson is taught well when the teacher knows 
the lesson and the pupils are all familiar with it." 
(What is wrong with an answer such as this?) 

"If the lesson is being taught well, one can tell that 
the whole class is pleased and benefited." (What 
mistaken notions of teaching are here implied?) 

Some of the answers named the following features 
of a Sunday-school class and its activities as evidences 
that a class was generally well taught: good attendance, 
good order, well-prepared lessons, the questions which 
the pupils ask, promptness, increase in attendance, 
the contributions which the pupils make, the interest 
taken in sick and absent members, and the desire to 
help those in need. 

The answers to the third question, that of the 
principal business of the teacher in the Sunday-school, 
revealed in the main an inadequate notion of the 
function of the Sunday-school teacher. They made 
the business of the teacher range all the way from a 
detail, such as that of encouraging attendance or liberal 
contributions, to that of leading every "member in 
the class to Christ." The ultimate aim of all Sunday- 

[28] 



SUCCESSFUL SUNDAY-SCHOOL TEACHING 

school teaching is, of course, religious and moral, and 
on the salvation of souls the emphasis of all such 
teaching should be placed. We are also well agreed 
that well-prepared lessons, prompt attendance, interest 
in worthy causes, as sometimes shown by liberal 
contributions, are some means to the great end of all 
religious teaching. All these things should be encour- 
aged by every teacher. But the failure to analyze 
the real business of the teacher of the Sunday-school, 
as the answers to the third questions show, is but 
another evidence that too often Sunday-school teachers 
mistake means for ends in this service. 

Note the following answers to this question, "What 
do you regard as the principal business of a teacher of 
a Sunday-school class?": 

"The business of the teacher in the Sunday-school 
is to encourage the pupils to study the lesson, to 
attend class regularly and to be prompt." 

"The business of the Sunday-school teacher is to 
arouse an interest in spiritual things." 

"The business of the teacher in the Sunday-school 
is to pay personal attention to each pupil in his class 
and to keep in touch with him." 

"The business of the teacher in the Sunday-school 
is to encourage regular and systematic Bible study." 

"The business of the teacher is to lead every member 
in his class to Christ." 

"The principal business of the teacher in the Sunday- 
school is to teach reverence for holy things." 

"To make clear the truth of the lesson and to adapt 
it to the needs of his pupils, is the principal business 
of the Sunday-school teacher." 

Indefiniteness of the Teacher's Business 

These quotations are sufficient to indicate how 
[29] 



SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING 

uncertain we are of our real business as Sunday-school 
teachers. Only one out of more than a score of such 
answers as those given above, mentioned the intelligent 
use of the lesson material as the principal business of 
the teacher. Most of the teachers seemed not to 
understand thoroughly that the business of the teacher 
is to help the pupils to a clear understanding of the 
truth contained in the lesson and to inspire them to 
apply that truth to their own actual living. This is 
indeed a creditable ideal for all teachers in the Sunday- 
school to have. The proper interpretation of the 
lesson material and the correct adaptation of it to the 
needs of her pupils constitute the real function of 
every teacher in the Sunday-school. 

Some Definitions : The Sunday-School 

Now let us turn to the question asked at the beginning 
of this chapter. First, What is the Sunday-school? 
What is its aim? 

Suppose we say that the Sunday-school or Bible 
school is a church school, whose primary aim is to 
instruct and train for Christian maturity. This 
should mean that the school belongs to the church to 
be used for re-enforcing and strengthening the church, 
through additions to its membership of intelligent 
religious leaders and workers. The aim of the Sunday- 
school, then, is to instruct and to train its members to 
become active Christian workers for the church and 
for the community. Instruction should be given in 
religion and morals, with the Bible as the principal 
basis, and provision should also be made for actual 
training in the principles of Christianity. Just how 
much of this training will be furnished will depend in 
large measure on the earnestness and activity of the 
teachers and on their ability to make provision for the 

[30] 



SUCCESSFUL SUNDAY-SCHOOL TEACHING 

pupils to apply the truth of the lesson material to their 
own immediate needs. 

The Class 

Second, What is the Sunday-school class? A simple 
definition of a class for Bible study or religious in- 
struction is a particular group of pupils, young or old, 
of a given age, whose aim is to acquire biblical knowl- 
edge and Christian ideals in a systematic and pro- 
gressive fashion and to put such knowledge and ideals 
into practice. The class may be young or old, few or 
many. But whatever its age or number, its ideal aim 
should be to receive instruction and practice or training 
in the fundamental issues of life. 

The Lesson 

Third, What is the Sunday-school lesson? The 
Sunday-school lesson may be denned as a particular 
idea or truth. It may be the story of the Good 
Samaritan, the parable of the talents, the Sermon on 
the Mount, or the story of David and Jonathan. 
Whatever the story, whatever the idea, or the truth, 
the ideal aim of the lesson is always the intelligent 
solution of some present practical problem of those who 
are being taught. The first care of the teacher in the 
Sunday-school is to apply the truth of the lesson to 
the needs of her pupils. 

Successful Teaching 

If we accept the definitions given of the Sunday- 
school, of the class, and of the lesson, we may say that 
successful Sunday-school teaching is that which applies 
definite and practical ideas to the immediate solution 

[31] 



SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING 

of definite problems of a particular group of people. 
This application should be made in such a way as to 
promote the growth and development of the pupils 
into useful and intelligent Christian service. The 
aim of the Sunday-school is to instruct and to train for 
Christian maturity; and the means which the Sunday- 
school makes use of are these particular ideas and 
truths which we call lessons. Good attention, excellent 
attendance, promptness, liberal contributions, well- 
prepared lessons, interest in discussions, the questions 
asked, are all good signs, and are seen in successful 
classes. But they are not alone measures of success 
in Sunday-school teaching. Each one may, too, be 
explained by something that is not fundamental to 
good teaching. They are only means to an end; and 
that end is providing for some practical reaction on 
the everyday duties of life of the pupils who are taught. 
Unless the teacher is making such provisions for each 
member of her class she cannot be pronounced a suc- 
cessful teacher. The story of the Good Samaritan 
must, for example, mean to the class more than a 
story; it must appear more than a good deed done 
many years ago to an unfortunate traveler. The 
principle must be brought to the needs of each member 
of the class which is studying it today. 



The Teacher's Knowledge of Her Pupils 

In order to be successful the teacher in the Sunday- 
school must know a great deal about her pupils. 
Before she can adapt and apply the principles and the 
truths or ideas in the lessons to the needs of her pupils, 
she must know what those needs are. If she would be 
successful she must begin early to start or to confirm 
a habit of approaching every Sunday-school problem 

[32] 



SUCCESSFUL SUNDAY-SCHOOL TEACHING 

from the standpoint of the needs and interests of her 
pupils. She must also be familiar with the various 
factors which condition the teaching process, if she 
would achieve as she hopes to do. She should know 
of the Sunday-school itself, its points of strength, its 
places of weakness, and its persistent ideal. She 
should know the home life of the children whom she 
is teaching. But the thing she should probably know 
best of all is the child himself, his natural tendencies, 
impulses, instincts, abilities, and capacities. We are 
just now beginning to see, as never before, that effective 
religious education and moral training not only has its 
beginning in, but is largely influenced by, the life of 
the children away from the Sunday-school class-room. 
And much of the progress which is being made in 
Sunday-school work is rightly attributed to a greater 
sympathy for children which a better understanding of 
them has produced. 

Some Reasons 

There are several reasons why teachers should make 
a special effort to study and understand children. 

1. Children are first of all very much unlike grown 
people, and they must therefore be dealt with differently. 

2. Grown people, as a rule, are so far removed from 
their own youth that they may be somewhat out of 
sympathy with children, and the result is a tendency, 
prevalent too often in Sunday-school teaching, to 
measure children by the same standards by which 
grown people themselves are measured. 

3. There is a traditional gulf between the teacher 
and the pupil, seen even in the Sunday-school where 
free play between them is supposed to be. Moreover, 
the formal side of teaching seems to widen this gulf 
and prevent a nearness of the teacher to the child 

[33] 



SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING 

necessary for a thorough understanding of each other. 
This is an unwholesome condition to have in any 
school, particularly the Sunday-school. 

4. The failure to understand children results in a 
failure to judge them correctly, which in turn means 
mistakes in teaching and directing them. 

5. A study and knowledge of children are necessary 
in order that the teacher may so understand and 
interpret their traits and characteristics that their 
needs are clear to her. This implies the necessity of 
knowing how to interpret their conduct and behavior. 

6. The teacher's ignorance of child life and child 
development makes it impossible for her to respect the 
rights and privileges of children. 

7. The physical weaknesses and defects of children 
are an important subject of study among secular 
teachers. Spiritual and mental growth are so de- 
pendent on physical health that the teacher in the 
Sunday-school should know considerable about each 
one of her pupils. This means that successful Sunday- 
school teaching requires more time than the teaching 
period on Sunday calls for. 

8. A knowledge of children's natural habits, their 
modes of helping and influencing one another, their 
antagonisms, their dispositions and peculiarities, is a 
valuable asset to any teacher in the Sunday-school. 

9. Such information as is likely to come to the 
careful observer and student of children is absolutely 
necessary before the teacher in the Sunday-school is 
able to do her best work. 

10. Unless the teacher have this information and 
knowledge of children, she cannot adapt the lesson 
material to their needs and interest. Moreover, she 
will be unable to interpret, clarify, and enlarge the 
children's experience and to give it meaning. 

[34] 



SUCCESSFUL SUNDAY-SCHOOL TEACHING 

Learning Child Life 

To know the experiences and the native equipment 
of those we teach is not so hard as would at first appear. 
We cannot, to be sure, see what goes on in the minds 
of the children; and most of us are so far removed from 
our own childhood that what we remember of it is 
fragmentary and distorted. There are, however, 
reliable and trustworthy books on the subject of child 
study which teachers in the Sunday-school may study 
with great profit. In them the various mental traits 
which characterize the various stages of child develop- 
ment may be learned. But this method of learning 
children and child life is not so workable as we need, 
though it is very helpful. Sunday-school teachers 
need to study the outward acts of children and the 
relations of children in general; to study as a whole 
each child in their group, to know the characteristic 
stages through which he passes and relate his outside 
life with the work of the Sunday-school and church. 
The playground and the home, and frequent conferences 
with parents, offer favorable opportunity for this kind 
of study. 

Child Needs 

A knowledge of the child and skill in using what 
he knows and what he is, are necessary for every 
Sunday-school teacher. And there is probably no 
body of men or women anywhere who should be more 
thoroughly acquainted with child needs and child 
life than teachers in the Sunday-school. Their work 
is so largely conditioned by the life of the pupils outside 
the Sunday-school, that an ignorance of the pupils' 
home life and of other facts, sometimes makes work 
in the Sunday-school fruitless. There is a decided 
tendency among Sunday-school teachers to think of 

[35] 



SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING 

their pupils in terms of their spiritual poverty and their 
spiritual needs. This tendency revealed itself recently 
in some answers received from a number of Sunday- 
school teachers who were asked to report on the 
following: 

"1. The class I teach is composed of boys and girls 
from — to — years of age. 

" 2. Some of their needs seem to me to be ." 

From the answers received the following are given 
as representative: 

A class of girls from 12 to 16 years of age needed 
"Thorough understanding of the Word of God per- 
sonally applied," and "the seeds of a life purpose 
implanted in their hearts." 

A group of boys from 14 to 20 were believed to need 
a "Deeper interest in spiritual things, a more earnest 
desire to know the Bible, and a more thorough con- 
secration to definite Christian service." 

A number of girls from 11 to 14 needed "a deeper inter- 
est in spiritual things, and more feeling for one another." 

A class of boys from 9 to 12 were believed by their 
teacher to need "More reverence and love for the 
church and sacred things, and greater interest in 
spiritual things." 

A class of girls from 6 to 10 were thought to need a 
"Knowledge of God's word; deeper appreciation of the 
truths of Sabbath observances." 

A class of boys from 11 to 13 needed, according to 
their teacher, "more sympathy for each other, and 
more profound reverence for the Church." 

A group of boys from 12 to 13 needed to "Study the 
lesson more before coming to class." And the same 
teacher added: "A few are not reasonably well edu- 
cated." 

[36] 



SUCCESSFUL SUNDAY-SCHOOL TEACHING 

This last answer is the only one which suggested 
other than spiritual needs of the various groups 
described. Nothing was said about the physical needs 
of these young people, whether they could see distinctly, 
hear clearly, and talk freely and intelligently, or 
whether they could read and write. None of the 
teachers mentioned the games and amusements of 
their pupils, their home environment, their occupations, 
their temptations, limitations or difficulties. The 
tendency to treat sacred things lightly may not always 
be a lack of reverence for sacred and holy things; it 
would depend entirely on whether the sacredness and 
the holiness of things had been made clear and were 
thoroughly understood. A teacher should indeed 
know that this or that boy treats sacred things lightly; 
but the same teacher should know that children whose 
eyesight is bad, or who are hard of hearing, or whose 
bodies are not properly fed, or whose home surroundings 
are not wholesome, cannot be ideal students in the 
Sunday-school any more than they can in the public 
school. Why should not a Sunday-school teacher 
know the forces of immorality which surround for six 
days in the week the boys whom she seeks to instruct 
in moral principles a short time on Sunday? And who 
should know better than a teacher that a child who is 
surrounded by unwholesome conditions six days in 
the week cannot be alert and take a lively interest in 
spiritual and intellectual things on Sunday? In such 
a case inattention may be called irreverence by the 
teacher who could better serve the needs of the boy 
if she knew him better. The acquaintance we get on 
Sunday with the boys in our class is not sufficient to 
make us successful teachers in the Sunday-school. If 
we are able to teach at all we will make better teachers 
if we know our pupils better. 

[37] 



SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING 

How to Consider the Child 

After we know the children in our class our duty- 
then is to consider them from the standpoint of their 
interests, needs, and future conduct. The task of the 
teacher is essentially in training her pupils to behavior, 
"taking behavior, not in the narrow sense of his 
manners," as William James has so well put it, "but 
in the very widest possible sense, as including every 
possible sort of fit reaction on the circumstances into 
which he may find himself brought by the vicissitudes 
of life." Successful Sunday-school teaching then is 
that which so influences the conduct and behavior 
(taken in the broad sense) of the pupils as to train for 
intelligent Christian service. To attain this success 
teachers must not only know the subject matter which 
they teach, but they must also know the children whom 
they teach, and know them well. A knowledge of 
children in general, sufficient to allow the teacher to 
utilize their native tendencies in the teaching process, 
and a thorough acquaintance with the particular group 
with which the teacher is now working, will make many 
obstacles in the Sunday-school disappear. Until the 
teacher is thoroughly acquainted with her pupils she 
is not able to plan the lesson properly, and to adapt it 
to the needs of her pupils. And until this is done, 
there can be no success in Sunday-school teaching. 

SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY 

Books 

Angus, Ideals in Sunday-school Teaching, The Pilgrim 
Press, Boston. 

Bagley and Colvin, Human Behavior, The Macmillan 
Company, New York. 

Gregory, The Seven Laws of Teaching, The Pilgrim Press, 
Boston. 

[38] 



SUCCESSFUL SUNDAY-SCHOOL TEACHING 

Hamill, The Sunday-school Teacher, Smith and Lamar, 
Nashville. 

Haslett, The Pedagogical Bible School, F. H. Revell 
Company, New York. 

James, Talks to Teachers, Henry Holt and Company, New 
York. 

Kirkpatrick, The Fundamentals of Child Study, The Mac- 
millan Company, New York. 

St. John, Child Nature and Child Nurture, The Pilgrim 
Press, Boston. 

Strayer, A Brief Course in the Teaching Process, The 
Macmillan Company, New York. 

Wells, Sunday-school Success, F. H. Revell Company, 
New York. 

Weigle, The Pupil and The Teacher, George H. Doran 
Company, New York. 

Exercises 

1. Why should a Sunday-school teacher know child 
life and the characteristic stages through which children 
pass? 

2. What are some of the plays and games of boys eight 
years of age? 

3. How does acquaintance with the home life of the boys 
in your class help you in teaching? 

4. Is the responsibility of the Sunday-school greater or 
less than it was twenty-five years ago? Why? 

5. Would you advocate longer periods for teaching the 
lesson in the Sunday-school? Why? 

6. What should a Sunday-school teacher know about a 
group of fifteen-year old boys in order to teach them suc- 
cessfully? 

7. Name two important qualifications for a successful 
teacher of girls fifteen years of age. 

8. What evidence have you that your class is a successful 
one? 



[39] 



CHAPTER IV 

The Qualifications and Preparation of the 
Teacher 

The Supply of Teachers 

An important idea of the Sunday-school or the Bible 
school as an effective church agency is that the classes 
shall be small enough to allow to the members specific 
individual attention by a competent, well-trained 
teacher. This feature of the Sunday-school is abso- 
lutely necessary if results in moral and religious training 
are to be had. Large classes, especially for young 
children are, therefore, undesirable. Classes for adults 
may be larger, but for children, the ideal number never 
exceeds eight or ten. The supply of teachers in any 
Sunday-school, therefore, becomes an important factor 
in the work. And the efficient, alert, progressive 
superintendent will provide for an increase in his 
supply of teachers as his Sunday-school membership 
increases. 

A Pressing Problem 

The task of securing, training, and maintaining a 
supply of competent teachers sufficient to this demand 
is the most persistent problem in all Sunday-school 
work. When we consider the claims of the Sunday- 
school and the varying needs of its membership, the 
seriousness of this problem appears at once. In 
settling the question there are many things to be 
considered. What are the essential qualifications of 
the competent teacher? Who are available for this 

[40] 



QUALIFICATIONS AND PREPARATION 

important work? What method can be used to im- 
prove those already in service? What plans can be 
made for equipping promising young people within 
reach of the church for teaching service in the Sunday- 
school? 

The Teacher's Qualifications 

1. The aim of all Sunday-school teaching is spiritual. 
This form of service in the church offers the greatest 
opportunity for men and women to express their own 
religious convictions. "It is not so much a matter 
of what ideals a teacher teaches as of what ideals are 
in his heart." The spiritual success of any class, 
therefore, depends on the spirituality and consecration 
of the teacher. These are of the first importance in 
the teacher's qualifications. 

2. The next qualification is a thorough knowledge 
of the subject matter which she is to teach; the teacher 
should know the Bible thoroughly. This does not 
mean a knowledge merely of the lesson for the next 
Sunday, but a connected and organized knowledge of 
the entire Book and the relation of its parts. This 
is as essential to the success of the Sunday-school 
teacher as a knowledge of any subject in the secular 
curriculum is to the teacher in the public school. 
Systematic and painstaking study of the Bible will in 
time qualify a teacher in this respect. 

3. The Sunday-school teacher also needs a knowl- 
edge of the fundamental principles of teaching. She 
should know what the teaching process is and how 
good teaching is done. This knowledge, however, does 
not mean a sentimental idea of so-called "soft peda- 
gogics," which has tended to decrease the dignity of, 
and to emasculate, the teaching profession. The good 
teacher observes correct principles of teaching, even 

[41] 



SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING 

though she may never have heard the word "pedagogy" 
or read a book on the subject. Young teachers will 
do well to study a few books dealing with the essential 
laws of the teaching process. There are scores of 
such books, easily available, and Sunday-school 
teachers should be acquainted with the best of 
them. 

4. A knowledge of child life and child psychology 
is a necessary part of the equipment of every Sunday- 
school teacher who would render the best service in 
the work. The problem of properly interpreting 
children's acts is a complex one. The true value of 
child psychology, however, does not rest in a knowledge 
of this or that isolated fact about children, but rather 
in a knowledge of how human growth proceeds. 
Children are not miniature adults; the child of six must 
be considered as different from the child of twelve; and 
the Sunday-school teacher needs to know the various 
characteristics of the different stages through which 
the child passes in order to guide him into the best 
channels and through the most serious dangers from 
childhood to maturity. A book or two studied on 
this important equipment of the teacher, and the 
valuable practice of observing child life, will add 
greatly to one's success in teaching in the Sunday- 
school. 

5. Sympathy for and interest in the work are also 
important for the teacher. This interest, however, 
does not mean a visionary zeal which amateurs so often 
display, but a big faith in the work and in the oppor- 
tunity to promote Christian growth and to mould 
genuine Christian character, — "a passion for souls." 
Where this passion is found there is no place for in- 
difference, and Sunday-school work is then taken 
seriously. 

[42] 



QUALIFICATIONS AND PREPARATION 

Training Class Needed 

The demand is not for trained theologians and 
professors for Sunday-school teaching; everything else 
being equal, godly young laymen are always preferable 
to young clergymen in this work. What is most 
needed in the Sunday-school is the taking of the 
available material, men and women of faith and 
ability, and training this material for teaching service 
there. If young people are otherwise qualified for 
Sunday-school teaching, the professional side of their 
training, outlined above, may be had by independent 
study. But the ideal condition is a training class, 
meeting regularly, under competent leadership, with 
instruction in the Bible, the principles of teaching, child 
psychology, and the more technical side of school-room 
practice. 

Training the Teachers Already in Service 

A class for the professional training of those who are 
already teaching is recognized by every live superin- 
tendent and pastor as a pressing need of their Sunday- 
school. It is one of their biggest problems. Seventy- 
five percent of our Sunday-schools are said to be rural 
or in small towns, and fifty percent of the Sunday- 
schools have less than a dozen officers and teachers. 
Here is one feature of the problem which is hard to 
solve. Interdenominational, community, or city train- 
ing classes are, as a rule, more likely to thrive and 
succeed than a class connected with a single church. 
But the suggestions made in this chapter are intended 
particularly for the single church, but may be used, 
with enlarging and improving, for the town or com- 
munity. The best methods of modern Sunday-school 
work may be adapted and applied to the small school. 

[43] 



SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING 

Beginning the Work 

The pastor and superintendent should concentrate 
their efforts in launching the enterprise of organizing 
a teacher training class. Most of us have yet to learn 
the real meaning of the Sunday-school, its place in the 
church organization, and its proper function in moral 
training. The church membership might have the 
importance of training religious leaders brought to its 
attention through a sermon by the pastor. This could 
be followed up by personal appeals from the pastor 
and superintendent to the teachers in an effort to enlist 
them in teacher training work. A public meeting 
should then be held, even though not more than a 
dozen people attended. Some efforts to begin such 
training as we have in mind would be a revelation to 
most teachers in rural and village churches where 
teachers' meetings of any sort are almost unknown. 
Interest has been known to develop in this significant 
movement when it was the least expected. When the 
importance of a training class is properly brought to 
the attention of the teachers, their responses are 
usually most gratifying. In these meetings com- 
parisons should be made of the work of the Sunday- 
school and the public school, the preparation of teachers 
in each, and the importance of the subject matter taught 
in each. This will call attention to the apparent 
neglect in the Sunday-school of teacher training and 
competent supervision of the teacher's work. 

Who Shall Teach the Class? 

After the teachers have been seen and the meeting 
has been held and plans discussed, a teacher competent 
to direct the work should be selected. If possible, a 
professionally trained teacher in the public schools in 
the town or community should be chosen. The pastor 

[44] 



QUALIFICATIONS AND PREPARATION 

or superintendent is usually selected for this place, but 
a man who is qualified to instruct in the Bible, in the 
principles of teaching and other allied subjects is more 
desirable. It is well, also, to select someone who is 
not connected with the Sunday-school as officer or 
teacher, but who, of course, is heartily in sympathy 
with the work. Moreover, if an outsider is secured as 
leader of the class, attendance is likely to be more 
regular and punctual. 

The Time of Meeting 

The evening of the midweek service has been found 
to be a very good time for the meeting of the training 
class. As a rule, teachers in the Sunday-school are 
very busy, and they are also usually attendants on the 
mid-week service. If the teachers' meeting is placed 
on the same evening with the mid-week prayer service, 
interest may be created in both. The danger of 
"crowding," however, is obvious. But if care is taken 
at this point, so that the prayer service is not made 
too long, this problem will solve itself. In some cases 
the teacher training class meets before, in some cases 
after, the prayer service. In some cases the practice 
of meeting late in the afternoon, having the teacher 
training class, and then serving a light, inexpensive 
supper, has been found to be a most excellent plan. 
This gives a recess before the usual time for prayer 
service. Moreover, the social feature of such a plan 
is worth while. 

The Course of Lessons 

Lessons on various topics and subjects connected 
with Sunday-school work should be planned. Such 
topics and subjects could be selected by the leader who 
should be acquainted with the professional needs of 

[45] 



SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING 

the members of the class. Such a course as is here 
spoken of assumes that the teachers already know the 
Bible, and in point of consecration are qualified for 
teaching service in the Sunday-school. One or more 
meetings should be spent on each topic, and no topic 
should be left until something definite and workable is 
reached as a guiding principle. The following is a 
suggested list of subjects which have been discussed 
and studied to great advantage in teacher-training 
classes: 

" The Qualifications of the Sunday-school Teacher." 

" Successful and Unsuccessful Sunday-school Teaching." 

" What Should the Teacher Know about Her Pupils?" 

" Planning the Sunday-school Lesson." 

" Teaching the Sunday-school Lesson." 

" Asking Questions in the Sunday-school Class." 

" Securing and Holding the Attention of the Pupils." 

" Relating the Lesson to the Life of the Children." 

" The Personality of the Teacher." 

" Jesus as a Teacher." 

" Examination and Review." 

Such a course should extend over at least ten weeks. 
Other topics, dealing with the more technical side of 
school-room practice, could be added and could be 
discussed with great profit. Such subjects would 
suggest others and soon the course would formulate 
itself. On such a list of topics there is an abundance 
of material, a sufficient amount of which can be had 
in a few books at a small cost. The books can be kept 
in the school library and used for reference by the 
members of the group. 

The Books 

The following books have been found of much help 
to teachers in the Sunday-school and have been used 
to decided advantage in teacher training classes. They 

[46] 



QUALIFICATIONS AND PREPARATION 

should be bought, if possible, by the Sunday-school, 
and placed where the members of the class can have 
easy access to them: 

Brown, How to Plan a Lesson, F. H. Revell Company, 
New York. 

Colvin and Bagley, Human Behavior, The Macmillan 
Company, New York. 

DuBois, The Point of Contact in Teaching, Dodd, Mead 
and Company, New York. 

Fitch, The Art of Securing and Holding Attention, A. 
Flanagan and Company, Chicago. 

Fitch, The Art of Questioning, A. Flanagan and Com- 
pany, Chicago. 

Gregory, The Seven Laws of Teaching, The Pilgrim Press, 
Boston. 

Home, The Art of Questioning, The Pilgrim Press, 
Boston. 

James, Talks to Teachers, Henry Holt and Company, 
New York. 

Kirkpatrick, The Individual in the Making, Houghton 
Mifflin Company, New York. 

McElfresh, The Training of Sunday-school Teachers and 
Officers, The Pilgrim Press, Boston. 

McMurry, The Method of The Recitation, The Macmillan 
Company, New York. 

Strayer, A Brief Course in the Teaching Process, The Mac- 
millan Company, New York. 

Weigle, The Pupil and the Teacher, George H. Doran 
Company, New York. 

The Plan and Method of the Work 

The leader should so plan the work as to review the 
preceding topic and to prepare the mind of the members 
of the class for the material of the new topic to be 
discussed at the approaching meeting. This new 
topic, which should be thoroughly prepared by the 
leader, should be presented by him and discussed by 
the members of the class. Readings on the new topic 
should then be assigned. The members of the class 

[47] 



SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING 

should keep notebooks in which should be placed notes 
on the readings which are assigned on the various 
topics from week to week and on the discussions in 
the class. Reports on these readings and on questions 
asked by the leader should be required of the class, 
and every effort should be made to make the work of 
the class as cooperative as possible. Lessons could be 
planned and demonstrated by members of the group; 
discussions should be free and easy; experiments should 
be reported, and the one aim of the class should be to 
develop effective teaching in the Sunday-school. 

How Such a Course May Help Teachers 

If such a course is properly taught and thoroughly 
studied the result will reveal itself in more competent 
teaching. The members of the class, however, should 
at the outset pledge faithful and prompt attendance 
during the ten or twelve weeks in which the work is 
to be given. They should make an effort to do the 
assigned readings, to observe their classes more closely 
from Sunday to Sunday, to study the topics to be 
presented at the meeting of the class, and to make 
their contribution to the interest of the class dis- 
cussion, — to give the class the benefit of their ex- 
perience and observation and experiments. They 
should make notes of the main points brought out by 
the discussion of the topics; they should ask and 
answer questions as freely as possible; they should tell 
frankly the difficulties they have in their classes; they 
should set aside a definite time for reading and for 
studying in an effort to improve their teaching; they 
should plan to work with a specific aim in every lesson. 

The Examination 

There should be given at the end of the work a simple 
[48] 



QUALIFICATIONS AND PREPARATION 

but practical examination of the course. Just as 
classes in the Sunday-school should have some form 
of review and examination as a basis for promotion, 
so also should classes for training teachers have ex- 
aminations. Of course the Sunday-school cannot 
adopt all the methods which are practicable in the 
public schools for securing regular and faithful work. 
But some form of examination is especially needed in 
a course such as that described above. Organization 
and perspective of a series of such lessons demand some 
final review and examination. The leader of the 
course should explain early in the work that the review 
will be practical, so that those who are not in the 
habit of studying and who do not like written reports, 
may have no particular fear of the approaching ex- 
amination. The examination, too, like questions in 
any class discussion, should teach as well as test; and 
the leader should consider the place it should occupy 
in his plan with the class. 

A Suggested Examination 

The following list of questions proved helpful and 
useful at the end of a ten-weeks' course on topics 
similar to those described above: 

1. Give the age and sex of your pupils. 

2. What are some of their plays, games, recreations and 
amusements? 

3. Do you always have an aim in teaching this particular 
class ? State the aim briefly. 

4. Write out in a brief paragraph what you regard as the 
essential features of a lesson plan. 

5. How often have you followed a definite lesson plan in 
your class? 

6. What are some of the needs of your pupils ? 

7. How can you tell when your class fails to understand 
the meaning of the lesson? What do you do when the class 
does not understand? 

[49] 



SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING 

8. Do your students know how to study? What effort 
have you made to teach them? 

9. How many questions did you ask in your class last 
Sunday? How many did your class ask? 

10. What habits are your pupils forming? What habits 
are you seeking to form in them? 

11. What are the essentials of a good story? 

12. Criticize this: " John, must I ask you to stop looking 
out the window and to pay attention to what I am saying? " 

13. Criticize the practice of rapping on the table or desk 
for order. 

14. Criticize and revise any of the following questions on 
the story of the Good Samaritan: 

" (a) James, what did the man who went from Jerusalem to 
Jericho fall among?" (b) "What happened to him?" (c) 
"Who passed by and saw him wounded and half dead?" 

(d) " Who had compassion on the wounded man, Robert? " 

(e) " What does this story teach, Harry? " 

15. How can you tell when you have taught a lesson well? 

Preparing New Teachers 

Not only must those who are already teaching be 
given specific and definite training, but provision should 
be made in every Sunday-school for training those 
who have never taught. Such provision is absolutely 
necessary if the church is to make herself secure for 
the future. Until a plan for training new recruits is 
inaugurated and executed, the Sunday-school cannot 
possibly occupy its proper place in the life of the church. 
The instructing part of the Sunday-school work must 
be taken with more seriousness. The promising young 
men and women who are available in the church should, 
therefore, be encouraged to interest themselves in 
preparation for this form of religious service. It is 
imperative that every church and Sunday-school make 
provision for preparing and training new teachers. 

Beginning the Work 

Interest in the work of preparing new teachers may 
[50] 



QUALIFICATIONS AND PREPARATION 

be awakened in a variety of ways. The pastor, superin- 
tendent, officers, and teachers should unite their 
efforts in inviting the younger Christians, who show 
promise of making competent and useful teachers, to 
join the class for instruction in teaching. There should 
be a class in every school, even though less than a half 
dozen students enroll in it. The only hope of securing 
an adequate supply of competent teachers for the 
Sunday-school rests at this point, and the young and 
the hopeful must be secured to forward this important 
work. Young people below the age of twenty years, 
thinks Professor McElfresh, are the ones to be selected. 
"They have not yet felt the heavy burdens of life upon 
their shoulders, nor have they become so entangled in 
the many interests or pleasures that they are distracted 
from important study of this character." Such young 
people should be talked with personally by the pastor, 
the superintendent, or some other officer of the Sunday- 
school; emphasis should be placed on the importance 
and the honor of being trained by the church for 
leadership in religious education. And only those who 
are earnest and who feel free to assist in promoting 
the work of the class should be enrolled as members. 
When such young people have been secured, even 
though the number be small, definite organization 
should be made of the class, and notice of organization, 
with the names of the members and the leader, should 
be sent to the central denominational office or to the 
state interdenominational office, or to both if necessary. 

The Teacher 

The best equipped teacher the church or community 
affords should be selected as the leader of the class. 
He or she should be consecrated and inspired and 
capable of inspiring others. The teacher should have 

[51] 



SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING 

a thorough knowledge of the Bible, be in earnest sym- 
pathy with youth, be trained professionally, if possible, 
for teaching, and have the proper idea of the responsi- 
bility of training young men and women for teaching 
service in the Sunday-school. If a teacher cannot be 
found who is trained in the best educational methods, 
the best available one should be taken and encouraged 
to prepare, by independent study, for the work of 
instructing the class. Knowledge of the Bible, of 
teaching, of what teaching is and how to do it, is 
necessary for such work. Above everything else, 
however, the one chosen should be a teacher and not 
a lecturer. Lecturing to a class in training for teaching 
is the quickest way to destroy interest in the work 
and eventually to kill the class. Delay beginning the 
work until a good teacher has been secured. 

The Time and the Place of Meeting 

Sunday morning at the hour of the regular Sunday- 
school session is a good time for the class to meet, and 
the church is a good place. Local conditions, however, 
may determine the time and the place of meeting. 
Some classes have met an hour just before the preach- 
ing service, when the Sunday-school met in the after- 
noon, in order that its members might continue in their 
regular Sunday-school class work. If a separate room 
cannot be secured at the church, sufficient space should 
be curtained or screened off from the other part of the 
Sunday-school, or the class should meet at some other 
place. The class should meet at the same place always, 
and not allow the practice of meeting at one place or 
home one time and at another place another time. 
Whatever the time and place, more time should be 
given to the study in the training class than is ordinarily 
allowed to the study of the regular Sunday-school 

[52] 



QUALIFICATIONS AND PREPARATION 

lesson. At least an hour should be devoted to the 
regular class work at every meeting. 

Training Class Equipment 

A separate room, if possible, is a necessary part of 
the equipment of the class. This room should be 
supplied with accurate biblical maps, a convenient 
blackboard, Bible dictionary, English dictionary, and 
a dozen or more books for reference and study in 
connection with the work. The books should be in 
charge of some member of the class and should always 
be in easy access to all the members. This reference 
library is an important part of the class equipment. 

The Student's Equipment 

Each student should have his own Bible, and a 
copy of the textbook to be used as a guide for the 
course, and the more of the reference books that each 
student himself owns the better it will be for him. 
He should also have a good notebook of convenient 
size, which should be used regularly in taking notes on 
the class discussions, the readings in the reference books, 
and on observation work which he may later do. 

The Course 

A course of lessons covering one or more years of 
work should be planned and outlined by the teacher, 
or, if such a course can be found already outlined, it is 
better to secure it. These lessons should deal with 
the Bible, child development and child psychology, the 
principles of teaching, and the history, organization, 
methods and management of the Sunday-school. 
Half of the lesson periods should be devoted to a study 
of the Bible, Bible history and geography, ancient 

[53] 



SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING 

customs and manners; and one half of the remaining 
periods should be given to a study of the child and the 
principles of teaching, and the other half to the study of 
the Sunday-school and its management. If the 
course is to be two years in length instead of one year, 
practically the same kind of division may be made in 
the periods. The Pilgrim Preparatory Course, pre- 
pared by The Pilgrim Press, 14 Beacon Street, Boston, 
Mass., is especially adapted to the class in the small 
church. Information concerning this course, the text- 
books used in it, and other information, may be had 
by writing to the above address. 

Method of Conducting the Class 

If an efficient teacher can be secured who can enlist 
the proper support of the church and the class, there 
will be little danger of failure. As has already been 
pointed out, the lecture method is not suited to the 
needs of a teacher-training class, though there may be 
less of discussion than will be found in a class for those 
already in service. Assignments of the lessons on the 
various parts of the course should be made with as 
much care and definiteness as assignments on any 
subject in the public schools. For a recitation or 
lesson of one hour, an assignment should be given 
which will require as much as two hours' preparation. 
The amount of additional readings in the reference 
books should be given so as not to burden the class 
unduly with this part of the work, though an effort 
should be made to do a great deal of this kind of study. 
Care should be taken to see that all assignments in 
outside readings be on the point or topic under con- 
sideration at the time the assignments are given. All 
of this, of course, means definite planning by the 
teacher. And in addition to this part of the work, 

[54] 



QUALIFICATIONS AND PREPARATION 

provision should be made for a great deal of illustrative 
and blackboard work, and the drawing of maps. Not 
only are the members of the group to gain information 
which they are to teach, but they should study and 
discuss specific problems in teaching, should have their 
attention directed to a study of the child, and should 
also be introduced to the more troublesome problems 
of Sunday-school management, and be shown what is 
being done to solve these problems. All of such topics 
as these should be studied and discussed thoroughly. 
But it should be kept in mind constantly that facts of 
the Bible and matters concerning personal influence 
of the religious teacher are of vital importance in the 
preparation of the teacher in the Sunday-school. This 
should always be in the mind of the leader of the class. 

Observation and Practice Teaching 

No training-school for teachers in the public school 
system or in the university is regarded as complete 
that does not make provision for observation of teach- 
ing and also for practice teaching. Provision for similar 
work is no less important for the training of teachers 
in the Sunday-school; in fact, it ought to be regarded 
as an important part of the equipment of every well- 
organized Sunday-school. After these young students 
of the Bible, of principles and methods of teaching, 
and of Sunday-school organization and management, 
have advanced sufficiently in these subjects, they 
should then be allowed to observe the work of the best 
teachers in their Sunday-school, or in any other school 
in the community. This observation work should 
extend over at least four or five Sundays. The obser- 
vations should be carefully recorded in the notebook 
and brought to class where they should be considered 
and discussed by all the members. This proves a 

[55] 



SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING 

most helpful practice in schools of methods for public 
school teachers. Later, the members of the class 
should be given the opportunity to teach classes in 
their Sunday-school or in any other Sunday-school in 
which they can secure the privilege. This teaching 
should be done under the supervision of the regular 
teacher of the class, the teacher of the training-class, 
the superintendent of the Sunday-school, department 
supervisor, or under the direction of some person who 
is capable of offering helpful suggestions. Young 
teachers usually object to such supervision, or hesitate 
to do practice teaching because of this supervision. 
The leader of the class, however, should make it clear 
that some form of sympathetic supervision is of vital 
advantage to the young man or woman who is inex- 
perienced in teaching, but who really wishes to learn 
how to teach. 

Examination 

At the end of the course, whether it be a course of 
one or two years, a review and examination should be 
given. Frequent reviews and written tests on the 
work should also be given throughout the course. 
The final examination should be simple and practical; 
such an examination will add dignity to the work 
and increase its importance in the opinion of the mem- 
bers of the class and the community. The questions 
should be made out by the teacher on the textbook 
used, outside reading, observation or practice teaching, 
and on any other additional work which the class may 
have done. The papers should be carefully graded 
and a record of the marks kept. If the class has been 
properly enrolled with the central denominational 
committee or with the state interdenominational 
committee, a record of its work should be sent to this 

[56] 



QUALIFICATIONS AND PREPARATION 

committee and the usual certificates procured. Some 
form of service recognizing the importance of the period 
of training and the completion of the course should be 
arranged by the church when a class has completed its 
work. 

More Efficient Teaching the Solution 

When classes for those who are already teaching are 
organized and properly taught, and classes are main- 
tained for supplying the Sunday-school each year with 
additional teachers, consecrated, well-trained and 
inspired, the educational work of the church will go 
forward as never before. And there is evidence that 
the church is awakening to this new responsibility, 
and is preparing to answer the demand for more efficient 
lay religious teaching. A return to teaching seems 
indeed to be the only solution for the great moral and 
religious problem facing the church today. 

SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY 

Books 

Athearn, The Church School, The Pilgrim Press, Boston. 

Cope, The Evolution of the Sunday-school, The Pilgrim 
Press, Boston. 

Hyde, The Teacher's Philosophy, Houghton Mifflin Com- 
pany, New York. 

Hyde, The College Man and the College Woman (Chapter 
on The Personality of the Teacher), Houghton Mifflin Com- 
pany, New York. 

Palmer, The Ideal Teacher, Houghton Mifflin Company, 
New York. 

Slattery, A Guide for Teachers of Training Classes, The 
Pilgrim Press, Boston. 

Slattery, Talks with the Training Class, The Pilgrim Press, 
Boston. 

Wells, Sunday-school Success, F. H. Revell Company, 
New York. 

[57] 



SOME j PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING 

Wells, The Teacher that Teaches, F. H. Revell Company, 
New York. 

See also the list of books mentioned on page 47. 

Exercises 

1. Read Kirkpatrick's The Individual in the Making and 
see if you change your notions of child nature. 

2. Give a brief description of the qualities of the Sunday- 
school teacher who taught and helped you most in your 
youth. How do you explain the success of that teacher? 

3. Give instances from the teachings of Jesus of (a) his 
knowledge of human nature; (b) his ability to adapt the 
truth he was teaching to the immediate needs of the group 
which he was teaching; (c) his ability to make clear the lesson 
he was teaching. 

4. Study Chapter VII of James' Talks to Teachers and 
note how many " native tendencies " a child has which the 
teacher can make use of in the Sunday-school. 

5. Read pages 247 to 274 in Hyde's College Man and 
College Woman and compare the qualities described there 
with your own. 

6. What Sunday-school weekly or monthly paper or 
magazine does your school take for its teachers? 

7. What advantages naturally come from teachers' 
meetings in the Sunday-school? 



[58] 



CHAPTER V 
Planning the Lesson 

Knowing the Pupils First 

If the teacher knows her class thoroughly she is then 
ready to plan each lesson in such a way as to meet the 
needs of her pupils. And no lesson can be well taught 
that is not planned with reference to the immediate 
needs of the class. Teaching children in the Sunday- 
school, or indeed in any school, is not a mysterious 
process. It is a natural process; and the art of teaching 
a ten-year old is not unlike that of teaching an adult, 
though the method may not always be the same. 
Preparation to teach the young class need not be 
essentially different, in fact probably will not be 
different, from the preparation needed to teach the 
older class. In each case the essentials of the plan 
are the same. 

Preparing the Lesson 

Assuming that the teacher knows her group of boys 
or girls well enough to understand their needs, limi- 
tations and difficulties, the next step in getting ready 
to teach her class is preparation of the lesson material. 
However long or short the lesson may be, the chief 
element in planning to teach it to a given class is 
thoroughness. Not only must the teacher know this 
particular lesson well, but she must know connections 
between this lesson and other lessons so that the 
teaching may be more effective. Not only must the 
central truth of the lesson be familiar to her, but the 
teacher must have at her service a wealth of detail and 

[59] 



SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING 

illustration which will help to make the lesson vivid. 
The Sunday-school lesson that is "crammed" — that 
is, studied hurriedly and superficially, late Saturday 
evening or early Sunday morning, without the proper 
relations being made — can never be taught with any 
degree of success. One of the most disastrous habits 
teachers in the Sunday-school have formed is this 
hurried preparation of the lesson. It has been re- 
sponsible for a large loss of interest in instruction in 
the Sunday-school. 

Thorough Preparation 

Thoroughness of preparation means many things. 
The business of the teacher is to teach, to instruct, to 
train, to test, to guide, to correct mistakes of fact or of 
ideas or conceptions, and to help the pupil build right 
and useful habits and to develop toward Christian 
maturity. These things are accomplished by the 
process of teaching. This entire process consists of 
the teacher's preparation of the lesson, the preparation 
by the teacher of the mind of the child for the lesson 
material, the presentation by the teacher of the subject 
matter, its explanation, and its application, or leading 
the child to reflect on the subject-matter. Preparation 
is not thorough on the part of the teacher unless all 
these features of the teaching process be provided 
for in every lesson. Thorough preparation of the 
subject matter by the teacher means knowing what 
the lesson is and what it teaches. The lesson may be the 
story of the sale of Joseph by his brothers, or of^Daniel 
and the lions, or the parables of the lost sheep and the 
lost coin. But the effect of it on the group of 
boys and girls in her class depends altogether on the 
teacher's knowledge of her pupil's needs and her 
ability to adapt the truth of the lesson to those needs. 

[60] 



PLANNING THE LESSON 

Becoming entirely familiar with the lesson should be 
done first of all without the use of commentaries, 
atlases, Bible dictionaries, concordances or other helps. 
No helps should be consulted until the teacher has 
learned all she can directly from the Bible. Then she 
is ready for helps and additional materials. No 
method of teaching can take the place of a thorough 
knowledge of every bit of material which bears on the 
subject to be taught. The good teacher goes outside 
of the lesson itself for any helps she can find, any 
knowledge in biblical geography, or any acquaintance 
with the interests of her pupils and the possible relations 
of those interests to the lesson to be taught. 

Organizing the Lesson Material 

When the lesson and supplementary material have 
been studied thoroughly, organizing that material and 
putting it into form to be taught, is the next step in 
planning the lesson. The teacher who would be effec- 
tive will cultivate the habit of organization; it is one 
of the most important elements in the whole lesson- 
planning process. The importance of this part of the 
lesson plan is found in the fact that the proper organi- 
zation of any lesson material must be made with 
reference to the needs of the children for whose teaching 
the plan is being made. This is the only natural 
method of lesson preparation. The point of view of 
the class to be taught, their interests and needs, are 
the rightful starting-point in the separation of the 
non-essentials from the essentials in the materials of 
the lesson. Facts differ in value, and Sunday-school 
teachers make a mistake when they treat them as 
equal. Facts usually depend for their value on their 
relations to one another; so, effectiveness in the 
presentation of facts depends altogether on their 

[61] 



SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING 

organization. And the basis of their organization is 
properly the relation of the facts to the interests of 
the class to whom they are to be taught. From a 
proper organization the central thought of the lesson 
will naturally reveal itself, and this becomes the natural 
basis on which the teacher formulates the aim of 
teaching that thought. 

From the Standpoint of the Child 

All this preparation should be done through the eyes 
of the children who are to be taught. Put yourself, 
if you can, in their places for the time. Note the 
questions which would probably arise in their minds. 
Write these questions down. They may seem simple, 
but they are clues to the lesson, and unless you take 
account of them many perplexities will assail you. 
Many of these questions may not be used in the class, 
but they will help clarify the lesson and produce other 
questions which will be of service when you come to 
teach it. 

Prepare " Pivotal " Questions 

Another important step in the planning of a Sunday- 
school lesson is the formulation of several "pivotal" 
questions which will call for the central thought of the 
lesson. It would, of course, be difficult to prepare 
many workable questions ahead of time. But a few 
well-prepared, intelligent questions may suggest other 
questions to fit situations which may arise after the 
teaching of the lesson has begun. These prepared 
questions should be those which would naturally 
provoke thought and stimulate the pupils to a lively 
interest in the central thought of the lesson. Such 
questions are easily formulated if the lesson material 
has been thoroughly studied and properly organized. 

[62] 



PLANNING THE LESSON 

Illustrative Material 

The plan of any Sunday-school lesson will not be 
complete unless it include a wealth of illustrative 
material. Variety of statement is essential to all 
good teaching. Prepare to tell the same thing in 
different ways, to make a fact more vivid by the use of 
a story which the children can understand, or by 
variety of illustration. Such methods are always the 
marks of good teaching. But this sort of thing never 
comes, especially to young teachers, except by thought- 
ful preparation and planning. "Teacher and children 
are often disappointed because of the lack of materials 
which could have been at hand had the teacher only 
thought about the lesson before teaching it.'* 

The Teacher's Aim 

The teacher's aim forms also a very important part 
of the plan of any lesson. She is not in her proper 
place if the teacher goes before her class on Sunday 
without knowing definitely what she wants to do with 
the lesson and how she is to do it. "What particular 
Christian characteristics should this lesson strengthen 
in my pupils?" "Is this lesson to make my class more 
generous, more truthful, more reverent, and more 
ambitious to render human service?" "How are 
these things to be done?" are questions which every 
teacher who believes in the nobility of her service is 
asking of every lesson she undertakes to teach. What- 
ever may be the thought to be emphasized or the 
truth to be taught, about it should cluster questions, 
illustrations and explanations which help in "driving 
it home." 

Assignment a Part of the Plan 

No Sunday-school lesson period is well used which 
does not include time for some assignment of the next 

[63] 



SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING 

lesson. No lesson plan, therefore, which leaves out 
assignment, is well made. The Sunday-school teacher 
should keep several lessons ahead of her class. Not 
only should she know the lesson she is to teach today, 
but she should know today the lesson for next Sunday, 
and know it so thoroughly that two or three minutes 
taken near the end of the lesson period to give the 
pupils an idea of the next lesson, will be an immediate 
means of stimulating interest in that lesson. Any 
group of intelligent boys and girls will take a more 
lively interest in the work if something is said about 
next Sunday's lesson. In making the assignment, give 
the class something to do. Good assignments always 
provide real stimulus for study in preparation of the 
lesson for next Sunday. Make it a point to give the 
inattentive boy something definite to do for the 
following Sunday's work. To look for some bit of 
information concerning the geography of the country 
in which the scene of the lesson appears, or a fact in 
biblical history, or some similar task, has been known 
to stimulate immediate interest in the work for the 
following Sunday. This can be done, in some form or 
other, in practically all classes in the school, except 
those of the youngest children. 

Time and Patience Needed 

All this will take time. The mastery of the lesson 
material, its organization, the formulation of important 
pivotal questions, the study and comparison of lesson 
helps, and the planning how to realize the aim of the 
lesson, will consume more time than is ordinarily given 
to Sunday-school teaching. But genuine Sunday- 
school success cannot be had without it. If the work 
is done thoroughly, and if the lesson plans are saved 
from month to month, the teacher who follows such a 

[64] 



PLANNING THE LESSON 

plan as that outlined here, and follows it with every 
lesson she teaches, will early develop into a mag- 
nificently trained teacher. If she has enlisted in the 
work for the good she can do for as long as she is able 
to do it, then she owes it to herself as well as to the 
cause for which she is working to give time and thought 
to preparation of the lessons she is to teach. More- 
over, this thoroughgoing method of work is economical; 
the more it is done the easier it is to do. The returns 
from such systematic preparation are great. In a 
short time the teacher who gives herself such training 
will find her mind stocked with memory verses; she 
will be familiar with the geography of the Bible, and 
with Bible customs, and the interpretation and appli- 
cation of biblical truths will become easier and easier 
for her. 

Efficiency Demands It 

This thorough training which the teacher gets is not 
alone the motive which genuine teachers in the Sunday- 
school have in undertaking to do their work well. 
The work may be hard. But no noble work was ever 
easy; and the call for improvement in Sunday-school 
teaching comes to strong men and women. Incom- 
petence in teaching in the Sunday-school has brought 
disastrous and woeful results. And if by painstak- 
ing effort and thoughtful preparation Sunday-school 
teachers can increase the efficiency in this important 
work, then the result will be worth all the time and toil 
which it requires. 

Driving the Spiritual Thought Home 

The aim in Sunday-school teaching is to give spiritual 
thoughts and spiritual truths. The selection of the 
central thought of the lesson, planning the method of 

[65] 



SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING 

approach, seeking to adapt the truth of the lesson to 
the interests and needs of the pupils, planning questions 
and illustrations and explanations, — all these things 
are means to one end, which is to quicken the spiritual 
life and insight of those who are to be taught. Deciding 
on the spiritual thought and how it can be given must 
form an important part of the lesson plan. And the 
lesson will be taught with more effect and will be 
stronger if only one thought is selected and plans made 
to drive that thought home to the thoughts and lives 
of the members of the class. 

Fundamentally Religious in Its Purpose 

The fact that the Sunday-school is essentially re- 
ligious in its ultimate purpose should be so thoroughly 
realized and understood by the teacher that she will 
never lose an opportunity to make her teaching re- 
ligiously effective. The conversion of the boys and 
the girls who are being taught, and their development 
and growth in intelligent Christian character, are, 
therefore, the ends for which the institution exists. 
The Sunday-school teacher is, for this reason, more 
than a teacher: the religious purpose must pervade all 
of her earnest effort. This purpose should never 
be left out of a lesson plan. " Strong, clear, religious 
teaching, serious appeal to the conscience based on fair 
exposition of the Scripture, is not repugnant to the 
pupils of our Sunday-school. They need it, and they 
will welcome it. It is not this, but feeble and oft- 
repeated exhortations based on nothing in particular, 
that repels them and drives them from the school as 
soon as they get beyond the years of childhood." 



[66] 



PLANNING THE LESSON 

SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY 

Books 

Hamilton, The Recitation, J. B. Lippincott Company, 
Philadelphia. 

Haslett, The Pedagogical Bible School, F. H. Revell 
Company, New York. 

James, Talks to Teachers, Henry Holt and Company, 
New York. 

McMurry, How to Study and Teaching How to Study, 
Houghton Mifflin Company, New York. 

Strayer, A Brief Course in the Teaching Process, The Mac- 
millan Company, New York. 

Weigle, The Pupil and the Teacher, George H. Doran 
Company, New York. 

Wells, Sunday-school Success, F. H. Revell Company, 
New York. 

Exercises 

1. What are the essentials of every lesson plan? 

2. How do you usually get ready for teaching a given 
lesson? 

3. What do you mean by " studying the lesson? " 

4. Why is it not enough merely to study and to know the 
lesson in order to teach it successfully? What else must the 
teacher know? 

5. Why is it necessary to plan the lesson before going to 
class? 

6. What do you do when you make an " assignment " 
for the next lesson ? 

7. What is the purpose of the " assignment? " Why is it 
necessary? 

8. Suppose you were teaching the story of the Good 
Samaritan to a class of boys twelve years of age. What 
" pivotal " questions would you ask them? 

9. Name several things you ought to know in addition to 
the lesson text in order to teach the story of Joseph and his 
brothers to a class of boys fourteen years of age. 

10. Do you plan your questions before you go to class? 
Do the planned questions work better then those asked on the 
spur of the moment? Why? 



[67] 



CHAPTER VI 
Teaching the Lesson 

Preparation to Teach the Lesson 

When all necessary preparation has been made for 
the actual teaching, then comes the task of putting 
into operation the plan which the teacher has made. 
This necessary preparation means: knowing the lesson, 
knowing those who are to be taught, and knowing the 
plan which has been made to teach the particular lesson 
to a particular group of children. Familiarity with 
the lesson means a thorough knowledge of it and a 
certainty of its central truth and thought; familiarity 
with the pupils means knowing them so well that 
their immediate needs are clear to the teacher; knowing 
the plan of the lesson means knowing how to adapt 
the central truth and thought of the lesson to the 
immediate needs of the class to be taught. 

Assigning or Giving the Lesson 

All good Sunday-school teaching includes the assign- 
ing or the giving of the lesson for the following Sunday. 
Just a minute or two before the recitation period has 
closed, the good teacher will tell her class something 
definite about the lesson for next Sunday. With very 
young people the assignment may best be made at 
the close of the recitation or teaching period; but with 
advanced pupils the beginning of the recitation period 
is a good time for assigning the lesson to be studied 
the next time. This assignment helps to create interest 
in the next lesson and gives the class something definite 
to do in preparation for it. In making this assignment 

[68] 



TEACHING THE LESSON 

the teacher should give that instruction or help which 
will prepare the mind of her class for the new lesson 
material. This instruction or help may be in the form 
of a story, a question to be answered in the study of 
the lesson, an illustration, or an explanation, or any 
other device or method which will direct the mind of 
the class to the new lesson in such a way that they 
will be anxious to study the lesson, to grasp and 
interpret it. Creating in the class an intense desire 
to know and to understand the lesson for the next 
time is largely the purpose of the assignment. This 
is one of the most important parts of the whole teaching 
process. By it the self-activities of the child may be 
excited and directed, the mind is awakened, the pupils 
are set to thinking, and they become curious, if the 
assignment has been properly made, to discover the 
truth the next lesson is expected to teach. The skilful 
teacher will use the assignment to get the members of 
her class to use what they have and what they know in 
getting what she wants them to have and what she 
wants them to know. She must remember, however, 
that "To assign the lesson in accordance with the 
ability of the class to acquire, requires judgment, 
knowledge, and a large share of common sense." 
Good assignments give definite aims to the pupils, save 
time, encourage the children, and give them a much 
needed training in the art of studying. 

Reviewing the Previous Lesson 

A brief review, by means of questions and suggestions, 
of the last lesson is very helpful. It helps to fasten 
in the minds of the children the truth reached by the 
previous lesson and to link that lesson with the present 
lesson. This form of review is as necessary as the 
more extended review at the end of a series of lessons; 

[69] 



SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING 

it is needed not merely to refresh the memory of the 
pupils, but to help them to organize, connect and 
associate the lesson materials. It helps to complete 
the work which the teacher is trying to do, — to 
organize the lesson truth in the life of the pupils, and 
by repetition of that truth, make it a part of the 
equipment of the pupils. All Sunday-school teachers 
should learn how to make use of this part of the 
recitation to greater advantage. 

Teaching the New Lesson 

The method of teaching the lesson varies with the 
purpose, the particular lesson to be taught, the pupils, 
and other conditions. But there are general principles 
which may be followed. If the assignment of the 
lesson for today was properly made last Sunday, and 
if the teacher this morning reviewed briefly with the 
class the lesson studied last Sunday, the next thing is 
to begin "teaching" the lesson for today. Good 
teaching is the same everywhere whether it be in one 
subject or another. The Sunday-school is suffering 
from the false notion that, because it is a purely 
religious school it must teach by methods other than 
those used in other schools, — by methods peculiar 
to a purely religious institution. It makes a mistake 
not to use those essential laws of teaching which are 
successfully used in secular schools. Some of these 
laws have been conveniently classified in natural and 
logical forms. A very popular and much used form 
for teaching the lesson, which may be of help to young 
and inexperienced teachers, is known as the Herbartian 
Plan, 1 or the so-called Five Formal Steps. The steps 

1 Named from the German philosopher and educator who lived 
from 1776 to 1841. He was a close student of the process of edu- 
cation and from an elaboration of his work we have what we fre- 

{70] 



TEACHING THE LESSON 

are known as Preparation, Presentation, Comparison, 
Generalization, and Application. They will be dis- 
cussed briefly in their order, and their use shown. 

I. Preparation 

By this term we do not mean the same kind of 
preparation we talked about in the chapter on Planning 
the Lesson. The word here is used to mean the 
preparation of the minds of the pupils for the reception 
of the new lesson material. The lesson has already 
been properly assigned, let us assume. The children 
were given something definite and specific to look for 
and to do in preparation of the new lesson. This was 
the aim given the pupils. The teacher also has an 
aim in teaching the lesson. The aim of the pupils and 
that of the teacher may not be the same, probably are 
not the same. The aim of the pupils was, let us say, 
to discover the various steps by which Absalom came 
to his destruction; the teacher may have as her aim 
the teaching of the lesson that disloyalty to one's 
parents will bring ruin. To realize this aim the teacher 
must prepare the minds of her class for the reception 
of the new lesson material. This may be done by a 
question, by a story, a novel statement, an illustration, 
or any other way which will help to prepare the pupils' 
minds which must be fitted for the new truth. 

The teacher calls up in their mind whatever they may 
already know about the new lesson or anything that is 
related to it. "Appropriate preparation thus calls 
up the closely related truth formerly learned, and 

quently speak of as the Five Formal Steps in teaching. A full dis- 
cussion of these steps and of the recitation may be found in Hamilton's 
The Recitation (Lippincott and Company, Philadelphia), DeGarmo's 
Essentials of Method (D. C. Heath and Company, Boston), and 
McMurry's The Method of the Recitation (The Macmillan Company, 
New York), from which the present explanation is largely taken. 

[71] 



SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING 

brings it forward in the mind to grasp, interpret and 
assimilate the new matter. The similar old facts are 
aroused from their slumber and rush forward into 
consciousness, eager and ready to receive the new fact, 
which, ever afterward, is to be associated with them 
in the most intimate family relationship." So, the 
teacher must call up past experiences, but only those 
which are "necessary for a mastery of the new matter." 
In other words, get the class curious and anxious at 
the very beginning of the new lesson to see the very 
thing you intend to bring to them. 

II. Presentation 

Presentation of the subject matter of a lesson is a 
very important part of the teaching process. The 
minds of the pupils may be properly prepared for the 
new material by the "assignment," and by the "prepa- 
ration" when the new lesson is taken up in class; but 
proper presentation of the new material is absolutely 
necessary before the new lesson can be acquired by the 
pupils. 

Method of Presentation 

In presenting the new material several methods may 
be used. The question method may be used, by which 
the pupils are asked questions on the lesson in such a 
way as to make its meaning clear; or the lecture method, 
by which the teacher talks to the class, trying to 
explain the meaning of the lesson. The question 
method, with suitable discussion, is always preferable 
to the lecture method. Whether the new lesson is 
presented by questions, by story telling, by the lecture 
method and discussion, the purpose is always the same: 
to bring the lesson to the minds of the members of 
the class so clearly that they will get and hold the 

[72] 



TEACHING THE LESSON 

thought that is being taught. It is here that the art 
of the genuine teacher reveals itself, in unfolding the 
lesson material to the minds of the pupils so as to 
direct them to the climax of the lesson in which the 
main point stands out clearly. Whatever the lesson, 
the skilful teacher will direct the discussion, or ask 
the questions on the lesson, so as to bring to the 
understanding of the pupils the important part of the 
lesson material. 

Good Presentation 

When the Sunday-school lesson is properly taught, 
its presentation will be clear and definite, it will be 
logical, it will follow a plan which the teacher has 
already made, and it will be complete. 

1. By clearness of presentation we mean the bring- 
ing of the important thoughts of the lesson from the 
mass of detail which surrounds it and holding these 
thoughts clearly before the minds of the members of 
the class. To do this, however, the teacher must 
herself see the very thing she wishes to teach, — the 
thought or idea of the lesson; her own thought must 
be clear and direct; and the language which she em- 
ploys in her questions, stories, illustrations, and ex- 
planations, must be simple enough for her class to 
understand. These requirements show how necessary 
it is for the teacher to plan the lesson before she goes 
to class. 

2. The natural and logical relation of the different 
parts of the lesson must be considered by the teacher 
in her presentation. The proper relation of the details 
of the lesson story to the main thought of the lesson, 
and the proper adaptation of this thought to the 
ability of the children in her class, practically assure 
their mental progress. The influence of the logical, 

[73] 



SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING 

natural method of presentation on the growing mind 
is also to be considered. Pupils who are fortunate 
enough to have instructors who are clear and logical in 
their presentation will naturally acquire the very best 
habits of mind and of study. 

3. The good teacher follows a plan in presenting 
the lesson to her pupils. She knows the lesson, she 
knows her pupils and their needs, and she plans, in 
her presentation, to adapt the truth of the lesson to 
their needs. The teacher who goes before her class 
on Sunday without a definite plan at this point is sure 
to fail. It is dangerous to trust to the inspiration of 
the moment in presenting the lesson. The aim which 
the teacher formulated for herself when the lesson 
was planned must, while she is presenting the lesson, 
be kept constantly in view; and in seeking to realize 
this aim she must follow a clear, definite plan. 

4. Every Sunday-school lesson must be so skilfully 
presented as to show completeness. In any lesson 
there are essentials and non-essentials in the details. 
The good teacher separates the important from the 
unimportant, picks out the big truth to be taught, sees 
it as a complete truth, and plans to present it so as to 
make the important fact of the lesson stand out as a 
complete thought. The wise teacher disregards the 
unimportant details and keeps her eyes and mind ever 
on those points which are essential to the unity or 
wholeness of the lesson. This requires definite plan- 
ning in advance, however. 

III. Comparison 

The third step in the recitation is known as com- 
parison, or, as it is sometimes called, association. 
Every mental act of whatever kind includes some form 
of comparison; comparison is a natural and important 

[74] 



TEACHING THE LESSON 

part of the mental process. "And in judgment and 
reasoning, the highest forms of thought, it is the 
dominant factor, the very pivot upon which thought 
turns. " The ability to suggest comparisons to and 
to direct the minds of her pupils in making comparisons 
is another test of the good teacher. "How does the 
ministry of John the Baptist compare with that of 
Jesus?" "How do the epistles of Peter resemble the 
epistle of John?" "In what respects are the epistles 
to Timothy similar to the epistle to Titus?" "What 
points of resemblance are found in the life of Samuel 
and the life of David?" are questions which suggest the 
use of comparison in the recitation. To answer any 
of these questions the pupils would require a knowledge 
of the point under immediate consideration and have 
at their disposal and use an abundance of similar facts 
as those which they are now discussing. Much of our 
teaching is done by comparison; and the necessity for 
giving to our students fixed and definite standards of 
comparison is at once evident. To give such standards 
and to train children to use them, form, in large meas- 
ure, the business of the Sunday-school teacher. 

For example: To answer the questions, "Did his 
brothers treat Joseph unkindly?" "Was the conduct 
of the older brother right when his younger, prodigal 
brother, returned home to his father?" "Was Pilate 
honest?" "Was Peter cowardly?" "Was Jacob de- 
ceitful?" requires standards of comparison. Before 
the child can answer either of these questions he must 
apply his standards of measurement which separate 
kind from unkind treatment, right from wrong conduct, 
honesty from dishonesty, deceit from frankness. Ac- 
curacy of reasoning, clearness of thinking, and sound- 
ness of judgment, in the end, depend on comparison. 
It is here that the teacher in the Sunday-school can 

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SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING 

make her efforts count for good: to give a knowledge 
of the principles of living and of the rules of conduct, 
and training to apply these principles and rules to 
actual life conditions, are the aim of genuine Sunday- 
school teaching; and to teach this knowledge and use 
of fixed standards is the first great care of the Sunday- 
school teacher. 

Association 

This is the name of the process by which one thought 
or idea suggests another. It also occupies an important 
place in teaching. The mind is nothing if it is not 
associative. The laws of association control practically 
all our thinking; associating one experience in the mind 
suggests another, that one suggests another, and so 
on. This action of the mind seems to follow at least 
three primary laws: the law of similarity, the law of 
contrast, and the law of contiguity. 

1. The law of similarity shows itself when one idea 
suggests another like it. I think of Absalom and his 
conspiracy against his father, David. This may 
suggest the plan of Jacob to deceive his father. From 
this I may think of the ordinary relationships between 
father and son, and soon I may be thinking of "Honor 
thy father and thy mother . . ."; "A wise son maketh 
a glad father . . ."; "A foolish son is the calamity of 
his father . . ."; "Like as a father pitieth his children, 
so the Lord pitieth them that fear him." 

2. The law of contrast operates as effectively as the 
law of similarity. Goodness may suggest its opposite, 
badness; an act of justice may cause me to think, in 
contrast, of an act that is unjust; unselfishness may 
cause me to think of a very selfish man; the thought of 
a truthful man may remind me of a man who has a 
reputation for not telling the truth, and so on. I 

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TEACHING THE LESSON 

think of Jonathan's love for David, and I am reminded 
of Saul's jealousy and hatred and attempts to kill 
David. 

3. The law of contiguity shows that ideas and 
thoughts which are associated in time, place, or cir- 
cumstances, may suggest one another. The law is 
very far-reaching and is of great help to the memory 
in efforts to recall. A passage of scripture or a song 
may remind me of the last time I heard the passage 
read or preached from or the song sung; I think of 
the reader or singer, and later of many of the circum- 
stances connected with hearing him. I read or hear 
read the first verse of the twelfth chapter of the Epistle 
to the Hebrews and I immediately think of a sermon 
I once heard from the text. I think of the illustrations 
used in the sermon, of the audience of several hundred 
college men, and of the effect on them. The value of 
this law in the mental process is easily seen. 

Value of Association 

A knowledge of these laws of association is, after all, 
of little value to the teacher except to explain to her 
how certain objects or ideas arrange themselves in 
consciousness. It is rather the fact of association that 
concerns the teacher in a practical way. "Your 
pupils," says James, " whatever else they are, are at 
any rate little pieces of associative machinery. Their 
education consists in the organizing within them of 
determinate tendencies to associate one thing with 
another, — impressions with consequences, these with 
reactions, those with results, and so on indefinitely. 
The more copious the associative systems, the com- 
pleter the individual's adaptations to the world." For 
us as teachers in the Sunday-school the only very 
useful practical lesson which comes from the fact of 

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SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING 

association is that the teacher should "impress the 
class through as many sensible channels as he can." 
The principle of multiple impressions is important in 
Sunday-school work. This is the reason Sunday-school 
teachers should do more than talk. There should be 
much blackboard work, map work, writing and draw- 
ing, the pupils should be permitted to talk freely and 
to discuss the lesson, so that a variety of impressions 
may be possible while the lesson is being taught. This 
helps the pupils to remember and also to understand. 
Variety of impression is the principle the Sunday-school 
teacher should follow. 

IV. Generalization 

This is the process of reaching general truths or 
principles, laws or definitions, from a study and dis- 
cussion of the lesson material. Whatever the truth, 
principle, law or definition, it should be clearly formu- 
lated and definitely stated, not by the teacher, how- 
ever, but by the pupils under the skilful leadership 
and direction of the teacher. The teacher should direct 
the questions, illustrations and discussions of the class 
in preparing the mind of the class for the new lesson, 
in presenting it, and in working over this new lesson 
material in the minds of the members of the class when 
it is compared and associated with other material. 
To teach truths, principles, laws and definitions is the 
aim of all Sunday-school teaching; but the end of this 
teaching is the application of those truths, principles, 
laws, and definitions to the immediate needs of the 
pupils in such a way that their conduct and behavior 
(taken in a broad sense) may be influenced and con- 
trolled. The use of generalizations, that is, laws of 
conduct, rules of action, and principles of correct 
living, is as important as knowing them. 

[78] 



TEACHING THE LESSON 

The Teacher's Business 

The forming or reaching of truths, principles, laws, 
and definitions must follow presentation and com- 
parison. After the teacher has properly presented the 
lesson and led the discussion on it, these generalizations 
should be formulated and stated. By these steps the 
pupils should be led to define and name the main point 
of the lesson. The conclusion of the class or their 
statement of the point of the lesson, if the lesson has 
been properly taught, will be their statement of the 
same idea or thought which the teacher chose as her 
aim. The teacher should remember, however, that 
the pupil should find the truth, principle, law, or defini- 
tion which the teacher wishes the lesson to teach, 
rather than to be told by the teacher what the generali- 
zation is. Of course she must direct and lead the 
pupil to the conclusion, correct his wrong impressions, 
or reconstruct misleading ideas. This is the teacher's 
business. But the pupil must himself see and state 
the principle. 

V. Application 

"Whosoever acquires knowledge and does not prac- 
tice it, resembles him who ploughs but does not sow." 
"It is not a question of what a man knows, but what 
use he can make of what he knows." Generalization, 
the step which we have just considered, gives truths, 
principles, laws, or definitions. Application is the 
effort by which these truths, principles, and laws are 
used; it is the end of Sunday-school teaching; and the 
teacher's business, again, is to lead her pupils to use in 
their own lives and experiences the new moral and 
religious ideas and truths which they get from Sunday 
to Sunday. It is here, however, that we probably find 
the weakest part of our Sunday-school teaching, in 

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SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING 

the failure to make this provision for the application 
of the truths learned in the Sunday-school. We teach 
"Honesty is the best policy," truthfulness, charity, 
and kindness, but we do not always show our pupils 
how, in the everyday details of their lives, it pays to 
be honest, to tell the truth, to be charitable and kind. 
We, as teachers in the Sunday-school, need to bring 
to the attention of our pupils, cases in which the truth 
of the individual lessons taught applies in their own 
lives. And unless this be done, Sunday-school teach- 
ing will continue to be more or less ineffective. Moral 
and religious knowledge is not a mere possession; it is 
rather an instrument which we are to use. Such 
knowledge, put to proper use, helps to build Christian 
character. 

Practical Suggestions 

1. Sunday-school teaching should emphasize the 
actual practice of the truths, principles, laws and 
definitions which are being taught in the Sunday- 
school, rather than a mere knowledge of them. This 
implies the necessity for constant, systematic reviewing 
and drilling in the application of the new truths learned. 
The Sunday-school teacher who is able to lead her 
pupils to use what they know and to practice what 
they have learned there, is doing real service. It is 
more of this kind of teaching that is needed in the 
Sunday-school. 

2. The teaching and the illustration of the truths 
learned in the Sunday-school should be as concrete as 
possible. The idea of "doing good for evil," of bearing 
"one another's burdens," of "Blessed are the peace- 
makers," should be illustrated to the mind of the pupils 
in a definite, simple, concrete fashion, and in terms 
which they understand. Cases from the actual life of 

[80] 



TEACHING THE LESSON 

the pupils should be selected for these applications. 
This implies the necessity of the teacher being familiar 
with her pupils, and of knowing their strength and 
their weakness, their temptations and their limitations. 
This knowledge of the child is most important in the 
proper application of the lesson truths. 

3. The teacher should provide for the practical 
reaction in feeling and conduct of her pupils. This 
can be done by bringing to the attention of her class 
conditions, circumstances, and cases in which the truth 
of the lesson can be applied. If the child is to gain from 
a knowledge of a new moral or religious truth, — if 
he is to grow morally and religiously — he must do 
something himself, or think about the new truth as 
applied to his own life. This practical instruction is, 
after all, the kind that tells for right living. The 
pupils must be given something to do: they must use, 
as far as they are able, the information they gain. 
Without this practical application, Sunday-school 
teaching will not be successful. Sunday-school teachers 
need especially to show their pupils how they can use 
the information and the knowledge which they gain 
there. 

Lesson Plans Must be Adaptable 

The steps of the recitation which we have just 
considered, preparation, presentation, comparison, 
generalization, and application, are not always appli- 
cable to every Sunday-school lesson. Neither will 
teachers always consciously follow these steps in 
teaching a given lesson. However, they are important, 
and young teachers, or teachers who have had little 
or no experience, will find them a valuable guide. The 
young or inexperienced teacher will profit by planning 
her lessons with reference to these or some other 

[81] 



SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING 

logical steps, not, to be sure, for the purpose merely 
of using such steps, but rather because they help the 
teacher understand the teaching process. Every well- 
taught lesson has definite parts with different purposes, 
though the teacher and the student may not always 
be conscious of the part and the purpose. Some such 
plan as that described above, whether it be known by 
this or some other name, should be used by the Sunday- 
school teacher. To follow such a plan, however, she 
must give to the preparation of the lesson more time 
and thought than it now receives. 

The Review 

It has been said that there are certain methods and 
features of the public school which cannot be used in 
the Sunday-school, and the review or examination is 
given as one of these features. But when the real 
purpose of the review or examination is known, and 
when all Sunday-schools and Sunday-school teachers 
know how to use it, it will be found to fill a real need 
and serve a vital purpose in this form of education. 
No time in teaching can be spent more profitably than 
the time that is given to the review. 

Kinds of Review 

The review in the Sunday-school should be of two 
kinds. There should be at the beginning of each 
lesson a brief review of the previous lesson, and at the 
end of each lesson there should be a brief summary of 
the lesson just taught, in order to make clear, by 
repetition, the important points of the lesson. In 
view of the short teaching period in the Sunday-school, 
this kind of review is particularly important. There 
should also be a review every two or three months on 

[82] 



TEACHING THE LESSON 

the work covered during that time. Such a review 
should be thorough but simple and practical, and 
should not be made a mere test of memory. It should 
become a regular part of the work of the Sunday- 
school so that the pupils will not become frightened at 
its approach, and should be required of all except the 
very young pupils. The examination papers should be 
read and carefully graded and returned to the pupils. 
Some form of recognition should be given those who 
do creditable work. This may be done by an announce- 
ment by the pastor or superintendent; by posting a 
list of the names of those who are to be promoted, 
or by giving a certificate or diploma at the end of a 
number of years' work. Such methods, if properly 
administered, will be productive of wholesome results, 
All returns of results, such as grades and marks of any 
kind, where reviews and examinations are customary, 
should not be concealed from the pupils. The an- 
nouncement of grades or promotion of pupils, however, 
can be made harmful: the children may learn to work 
for grades and promotion rather than for the work 
itself. But their eagerness to know how successful 
they have been is perfectly natural and is a good sign. 

Purpose of the Review 

The examination in the Sunday-school may be justi- 
fied in a number of ways. Many of the reasons given 
for having reviews or examinations in the Sunday- 
school are the same as those advanced for the reviews 
or examinations in the public school. Education is 
education, and teaching is teaching, wherever it is 
found. The purpose of the examination is the same 
everywhere. 

1. For the Sake of Organization. Whether it be 
with reference to one lesson or a series of lessons, some 

[83] 



SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING 

review or examination is needed in order to help the 
pupil to an organization of his knowledge and infor- 
mation. Without such an organization he will not 
be able to see, in its proper relation, the material which 
he has been studying. But a mere parrot-like recital 
of the subject of the lesson, of the golden text, and of 
one or two "main points" in each lesson, will not give 
this organization. The teacher must plan for the 
examination or review which will give a connectedness 
to the lesson or lessons, just as she would plan for the 
teaching of any one lesson. If the pupils have been 
taught how to study, such a review will be particularly 
helpful to them. It may take the form of an outline 
on the particular lesson which is being reviewed, out- 
lines on the lessons covered by the examination, the 
writing out of answers to questions suggested by the 
teacher on a lesson or a series of lessons, or the teacher 
may assign topics to the pupils to be studied and 
discussed in class. Any method by which the lesson 
or a series of lessons may appear well organized and 
properly put together may be used by the teacher. 
The pupil needs to be given a proper perspective of 
the work, whether it be of one lesson or of a number 
of lessons. 

2. For the Sake of Memory. The examination will 
help to furnish a stimulus for thorough work. We 
have already seen the importance of "association" in 
learning. The secret of a good memory is the secret 
of forming many associations with each fact studied or 
learned. This formation of many associations may 
be made by frequent repetition, — thinking as much as 
possible about the fact that has been studied or learned. 
The task of the teacher is to furnish her pupils with 
stocks of ideas and thoughts. The more her pupils 
are taught to "think over" these ideas and thoughts, 

[84] 



TEACHING THE LESSON 

weaving them together in a connected fashion, the 
better will be their memory. The review, therefore, 
is not to be made a mere repetition in order to "re- 
fresh" the minds of the pupils; but the good teacher 
will use it to strengthen their minds. There is at this 
point a very close relation between reviews and the 
formation of mental habits. The proper repetition 
of a fact until it is learned, makes that fact vivid, 
arouses interest in it, and secures attention to it. One 
motto of the teacher should be: "Arouse interest, secure 
attention, repeat." 

3. Test of the Teacher's Work. Nothing shows the 
success or failure of a teacher so much as an examination 
of her pupils. If an examination of normal children 
shows that they remember little and understand less 
of what they have been taught, this is sufficient proof 
that the work of the teacher has not been well done. 
There is a close relation between this reason for the 
examination and another reason so often given, that 
it tests the knowledge of the pupils. The examination 
is necessary in order to test the knowledge of the 
pupils and the ability of the teacher to teach. We 
need in the Sunday-school as well as in the public 
school to know how well a thing is taught and how 
much of it is learned. 

4. Test of the Pupil's Work. Of course the ex- 
amination should test the pupil's knowledge, although 
this is not its primary importance. It is the more 
important, however, where emphasis is placed on the 
completion or the perfection of information on a 
certain subject, and on the ability to use that infor- 
mation readily. On the other hand, however, the 
examination is not given for the teacher's sake but 
for the sake of the pupils; and as "incentives for keeping 
in mind the work that has been pursued over an ex- 

[85] 



SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING 

tended period," it should be emphasized in the Sunday- 
school more than it is today. 

SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY 

Books 

Angus, Ideals in Sunday-school Teaching, The Pilgrim 
Press, Boston. 

Bagley, The Educative Process, The Macmillan Company, 
New York. 

Brown, How to Plan a Lesson, F. H. Revell Company, 
New York. 

DeGarmo, Essentials of Method, D. C. Heath and Com- 
pany, New York. 

DuBois, The Point of Contact in Teaching, Dodd, Mead 
and Company New York. 

Gregory, Seven Laws of Teaching, The Pilgrim Press, 
Boston. 

Hamilton, The Recitation, J. B. Lippincott Company, 
Philadelphia. 

Weigle, The Pupil and the Teacher, George H. Doran 
Company, New York. 

Exercises 

1. Suppose you were going to teach the story of the Good 
Samaritan to a group of ten-year-old boys, (a) What aim 
would you have? (b) What aim would you give the class? 
(c) How would you " assign " the lesson the Sunday before 
you were to teach it? (d) Tell how you would prepare their 
minds for the lesson material when you come to teach the 
lesson, what questions you would ask, what story or stories 
you would tell, what illustrations you would use. (e) How 
could you provide for them to apply the truth of the lesson? 
(These questions assume the teacher's thorough familiarity 
with her pupils.) 

2. What are some of the advantages of the question 
method in teaching in the Sunday-school? The lecture 
method? What objections are there to the lecture method? 

3. Suppose you had to teach to a class of boys or girls 15 
to 17 years of age the story of the merchant seeking goodly 
pearls (Matthew 13 : 45-46). What existing ideas or no- 
tions of theirs would you seek to change? What general 

[86] 



TEACHING THE LESSON 

truth (generalization) would you try to reach with them? 
What " comparisons " could you use? What kind of asso- 
ciations would you probably use? 

4. Outline the lesson for next Sunday, giving (a) the sub- 
ject of the lesson; (b) the aim you gave your class last Sun- 
day to aid them in preparing the lesson; (c) the aim you will 
have in teaching the lesson; (d) and indicate briefly the steps 
you will try to follow in realizing that aim. 

5. Why should the teacher not have more than one aim 
for each lesson? 

6. Why is it better to have a class conclude after a study 
of the lesson that, for instance, " Honesty is the best policy," 
than for the teacher to tell this to the class at the beginning of 
the lesson? 



[87] 



CHAPTER VII 

Attention and Interest 
Importance 

It is very important for the Sunday-school teacher to 
know the principles which underlie attention and 
interest on the part of the pupils, the "application of 
the mind to any object of sense, representation, or 
thought," and the excitement of feeling which may 
accompany that application. The relation between 
them is so close that we cannot understand the one 
without a knowledge of the other. We always attend 
to those objects, representations, or thoughts, in which 
we have interest, those things which concern us. 
These principles apply as much to Sunday-school 
teaching as to the teaching of any subject in the public 
schools. There are good reasons, however, why the 
teacher in the Sunday-school should understand the 
principles of interest and attention in instruction. 
The prevailing practice of voluntary teaching and 
voluntary attendance in the Sunday-school has had a 
tendency to produce easy-going methods there; and 
the common belief that because the subject taught 
there is the Bible, the children will, in some mysterious 
manner, understand it, has made ideals of method and 
a knowledge of the principles of teaching seem rather 
unnecessary for the Sunday-school teacher. A brief 
consideration of the basis of interest and attention is, 
therefore, in order at this point. 

The Point of Contact 

Mr. DuBois has an excellent little book called "The 
Point of Contact in Teaching," which every teacher 

[88] 



ATTENTION AND INTEREST 

in the Sunday-school should read. 1 It deals with the 
natural way of approach to the child's mind, which 
"is a castle that can be taken neither by stealth nor by 
storm." It emphasizes the necessity of teaching young 
children from the standpoint of their own immediate 
interests; and it shows that "the ideal point at which 
a child's intelligent attention" is to be gained, or his 
instruction to begin, is the child's experience or contact 
with life. Getting a point of contact, then, means 
linking the life interests of the child to the thing which 
he is being taught. No instruction can begin until 
this is done. Every normal child has certain interests 
which the teacher may enlarge or enrich; "starting with 
something which the child knows through experience, 
and is therefore personally interested in," the teacher 
may introduce him to the subject which is being taught, 

— even though that subject may at first appear remote, 

— so that there will be a natural development of his 
interest in the subject itself. This is a simple ele- 
mentary law of teaching which applies as much to the 
teaching of a moral truth as to the teaching of a fact 
in history or a law in physics. Start with what the 
child already knows or is interested in; go from the 
known to the unknown with him; connect his present 
interests with the lesson you are teaching. This is 
getting a point of contact. 

A Defect in Sunday-School Teaching 

One great fault in much of our Sunday-school teach- 
ing is found in the failure to seek points of contact with 
our pupils. The materials and methods used in teach- 
ing grown-ups have too often also been used in teaching 
young children. We have sought to instruct them not 

1 Published by Dodd, Mead and Company, New York. Seventy- 
five cents. 

[89] 



SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING 

only in adult ideas but also by adult methods. But 
children are in no respects miniature adults; they live 
on a plane of experience that arises from their activities 
and their contact with the outside world; their ex- 
periences are all concrete, simple, and immediate. 
Real, active, living things are their teachers and 
educators; and the great principle for the Sunday- 
school teacher to observe is that the instruction of 
children must begin where they come in contact with 
these real, living, active things, as they see and under- 
stand them. Teaching young children spiritual ideas 
in terms and words which we sometimes hear used in 
the Sunday-school is a hopeless task and can but 
result in producing erroneous notions of religion. The 
Sunday-school should accept the results of scientific 
studies of children which have improved methods in 
secular education. It is ridiculous to assume that, 
because ideas are religious and spiritual, they will, in 
some magical and mysterious fashion, make themselves 
clear to young minds, however much beyond the plane 
of the experience of the children the passages selected 
for instruction may be. The natural way is the safest 
way in Sunday-school teaching. 

Mistaken Notions about Children 

This defect in our teaching is due in large measure 
to our mistaken notions about child life. Children fail 
to understand many of the truths which we undertake 
to teach in the Sunday-school because these truths 
are not presented in an order consistent with the mental 
ability of those who are being taught. Although they 
have learned a great many things by that time, six- 
year-old children know much less than we suppose 
they do about things we try to teach them. There 
are, to be sure, many points of contact with most 

[90] 



ATTENTION AND INTEREST 

children, many ways of approach to their minds. But 
false notions of their plane of experience have been 
responsible for much that has been accounted a failure 
in the Sunday-school. Sunday-school teachers need 
to know the main principle by which children receive 
things into their minds. 

Apperception 

This is the word which psychology uses to define 
and name a very simple matter. The word means 
nothing more than the manner or process by which 
the mind receives new things. The rule is simple: 
children learn new things in terms of old things, things 
which they already know. No more important 
principle was ever laid down for the teacher in any 
school than the one which says to her: "Bring your 
instruction down to the apperceptive basis of the child, 
down to the plane on which he can understand what 
you are trying to teach him." The teaching of any 
new knowledge then rightly becomes a development 
of knowledge which the child already has. His 
knowledge of facts of any kind and his way of looking 
at things must be understood, if the teacher expects 
to widen, expand and enrich the child's information 
and to control and influence his action and conduct. 
It is here that we find the danger of "shooting over the 
heads" of our pupils. 

Importance of this Law for the Teacher 

It is very important that every teacher in the Sunday- 
school keep this principle in mind. Her lesson plans 
should always be made with reference to the operation 
of this law. If it were possible for the teacher to know 
the mental content of her pupils, if she knew what they 

[91] 



SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING 

know and what they do not know, it would prove of 
great help to her. This knowledge would enable her 
to learn the direction of their interests, their ability to 
use and understand words, 1 to name objects correctly, 
the manner by which they classify and arrange the 
materials or objects they are already familiar with. 
In this way the teacher would know what she has to 
work with, and what she may or may not assume of her 
pupils. She would know the defects of the experiences 
of the children she teaches, and with what materials the 
instruction which she wishes to give them is directly 
or even indirectly connected. 

What Do Children Know? 

It is possible for the teacher to learn in a general way 
what her pupils know. Careful and scientific investi- 
gations of the content of the minds of children have 
been made and are easily accessible. Such a contri- 
bution to a knowledge of child life and child develop- 
ment has done much to improve methods of teaching 
in the secular school. The following paragraphs will 
serve to show how little certain American children, 
six years of age and entering school, knew about 
certain common, ordinary things. Of the number 
examined 

Fifty-four per cent, did not know what a sheep was, 
sixty-one per cent, had never seen potatoes growing, 
thirty-five per cent, did not know what clouds were, 

1 It has been shown that the ability of children to use words which 
they understand varies greatly. "The vocabulary of a slum child 
of five did not extend beyond two or three dozen words; on the other 
hand, it was found that an average child of five from a good middle- 
class home had command of, or understood, not less than a thousand 
English words, while bright children carried the number to one 
thousand five hundred or even to two thousand." Rusk, Introduction 
to Experimental Education, Longmans, Green and Company, p. 74. 

[92] 



ATTENTION AND INTEREST 

forty-eight per cent, did not know what a river was, 
thirty-five per cent, did not know what a circle was, 
sixty-two per cent, did not know what a spade was, and 
fifty per cent, did not know where butter comes from. 1 

Thirty-five per cent, of city children six years of age 
had never been in the country; twenty per cent, did not 
know where milk comes from; forty-seven per cent, 
had never seen a pig; from thirteen to eighteen per cent, 
"did not know where their cheek, forehead, or throat 
was, and fewer yet knew elbow, wrist, ribs, etc." 2 

Some of the misconceptions in the minds of children, 
disclosed by similar investigations, were: "Butterflies 
make butter, butter is said to come from buttercups; 
grasshoppers give grass; kittens grow on pussy-willow; 
all honey is from honey-suckles; and even a poplin 
dress is made of poplar-trees." 3 

A number of children from six to ten years of age 
were asked: 

" Why should we be good? " 

"What is Sunday for?" 

" Where is heaven? " 

" What do children do in heaven? " 

"What do angels do?" 

and some of the answers to the questions were: "Angels 
wear plain white clothes, and don't look stylish." 
"Have nice hair and wear nice gowns." "Angels 
come down and tell men when they burn sheep what 
to do." 4 

1 Rusk, Introduction to Experimental Education, p. 75. 

2 DuBois, The Point of Contact in Teaching, p. 26. 

3 Rusk, Introduction to Experimental Education, p. 77. 

4 DuBois, The Point of Contact in Teaching, p. 27. 



[93] 



SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING 

The Significance of These Facts 

Such facts as these show how poorly furnished is the 
mind of the average child for many of the lessons we 
try to teach him in the Sunday-school and for most of 
the methods used there. How much meaning for most 
children is there in the Ten Commandments, the 
Beatitudes, the Twenty-Third Psalm, or such verses 
as "Whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and 
he that humbleth himself shall be exalted"; "My son, 
give me thine heart"; "In all points tempted like as we 
are, yet without sin"; "Blessed are the pure in heart: 
for they shall see God"; "Keep the door of my lips"; 
"Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection and the 
life"? Consider how hard it is to get "points of con- 
tact" with a great deal that we have to teach in the 
Sunday-school, and how difficult it often is even for us 
adults to understand. Few children can be made to 
feel adequate and safe meanings of such figures as 
"If thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from 
thee"; "My soul doth magnify the Lord"; "Man 
looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord 
looketh on the heart." These facts also emphasize the 
necessity for knowing the pupils we teach, and making 
preparation for teaching them, — planning to make and 
keep "points of contact." 

Inattention 

What is the first thing you plan to do in teaching 
a lesson? Are your pupils ever inattentive? The 
first thing every good teacher in the Sunday-school 
should do in planning to teach a lesson is to get a 
point of contact: to bring the lesson thought to the 
attention of her pupils through their present interests. 
Inattention means the failure to secure this point of 
contact. The habit of using their present interests, of 

[94] 



ATTENTION AND INTEREST 

securing at the outset and maintaining points of contact 
throughout the entire lesson, is one of the first habits 
Sunday-school teachers should seek to form. When 
the pupils fail to attend to the lesson, the teacher has 
failed to connect their immediate interests and the 
lesson she is teaching. 

Kinds of Attention 

There are two kinds of attention: voluntary, or that 
which requires will power, and spontaneous or natural. 

1. Voluntary attention is very uncertain and un- 
stable, is given with effort and is directed by the will, 
and can sustain itself for only a short time. It is the 
kind of attention which a teacher gets when she 
commands it in a loud or unusual voice, or when she 
begs her pupils "to be quiet and pay attention to the 
lesson," or when she threatens, or when she snaps her 
finger for attention. If the subject for which the 
teacher seeks the attention of her class is not naturally 
interesting to them, their minds will soon be wandering 
again after she has for the moment secured this kind 
of attention. They will be pulled to other things than 
the lesson. It is here that the teacher reveals ability 
or lack of ability to teach. If she has a thorough 
knowledge of child life in general, and a more particular 
knowledge of the children she is teaching, she will know 
how to get points of contact between their interests 
and the lesson she is teaching. If a variety of move- 
ment be given the subject matter, "if the subject be 
made to show new aspects of itself, to prompt new 
questions; in a word, to change," the pupils will "take 
an interest" and give attention. But voluntary 
attention is not sufficient. 

2. Spontaneous or natural attention is that which 
children show when they are drawn naturally and 

[95] 



SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING 

without effort to some object, idea or thought. It 
depends on the interests of the children. Children 
give attention to things in order that they may under- 
stand them; they concentrate or place their mind on 
an object or sensation in order to get some meaning 
out of it. That object or idea which gets their atten- 
tion at once has in it something they want to under- 
stand, something that has an interest for them. New 
things to look at, or new sounds to hear, the sudden 
opening of the door, a noise on the outside, and a 
number of other sensations, provoke spontaneous 
attention and may keep it. Those things which show 
life and movement are the things naturally interesting 
to children. This law in child life suggests the need 
for making the instruction of children as objective and 
as concrete as possible: the blackboard should be used 
and there should be much story-telling. The native 
interests of children may be connected with the interests 
which the teacher has in mind: "Any object not 
interesting in itself may become interesting through 
becoming associated with an object in which an interest 
already exists." Here is the task for the teacher again. 

Using the Child's Native Interests 

Some of the native interests and tendencies which 
may be of help to teachers in the Sunday-school are: 

Curiosity 

This tendency is very closely associated with interest 
and attention: curiosity causes attention, and attention 
arouses or produces interest. The mind of the child 
naturally likes to be active and curious. The puzzling 
questions which children ask illustrate this tendency. 
Curiosity is the tendency to discover merely for the 
sake of finding out; and the business of the teacher is 

[96] 



ATTENTION AND INTEREST 

to guide it into desirable channels and on useful things. 
It should be stimulated by all legitimate means. 
Young children give attention to every new impression 
that reaches them. The advantage of object-teaching, 
of illustration, and of blackboard work, appears here. 
Some of the most beneficial appeals that the teacher 
can make can be through objects shown or by acts 
described or performed. If properly directed curiosity 
can be made to serve a good purpose to the teacher. 
She should remember, too, that it is nearly as easy to 
direct the curiosity of children to really useful things 
and the worthy interests of life as to the worthless and 
trifling things. The criticism is now and then made 
that children satisfy their curiosity with unworthy and 
ignoble things because their curiosity is frequently 
denied the worthy and noble ones. 

Fear 

Fear is an instinct which has largely lost its educative 
importance by the time children reach the sixth or 
seventh year. It seems to be universal in children, 
however, and was appealed to more in the past than 
it is at present. It is the mother of superstition and 
in its primitive form breeds selfishness and weakness. 
Those fears which fill the mind with dread accomplish 
no lasting good, but it is well to remember that there 
are rational fears. The problem of the teacher is to 
detach fear from the objects which once aroused it, — 
fear of the unknown, of the dark, of certain strange 
animals, of the "bogey-man" — and to attach it to 
other objects, — fear of failure, of sin, of the disapproval 
of the teacher, or of parents, or pastor, or of one's 
companions and classmates. 

Imitation 

Invention and imitation are the two legs .says James, 
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SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING 

on which the human race historically has walked. 
Imitation may be conscious or unconscious; it is the 
copying of another's conduct or behavior, or the 
reproduction of something seen. The tendency shows 
itself in a number of ways, and is closely akin to the 
tendency of emulation and rivalry described below. 
A smiling teacher can have a smiling, cheerful class; 
a sour, petulant, captious word or action may reproduce 
itself in the class. Although this tendency is most 
pronounced during the earlier years of the child, its 
power persists in most individuals for a long time. 
By it most children learn, by it they are mentally 
influenced, their mental states being determined largely 
by those with whom they associate most freely. It is 
a tendency which the teacher in the Sunday-school 
can use to great advantage if she understands child 
nature sufficiently. 

Emulation 

This is the tendency to imitate the behavior, con- 
duct, or action of another so as not to appear inferior. 
It is perfectly natural for all of us to wish not to be so 
very unlike others about us: "we wish not to be lonely 
or eccentric, and we wish not to be cut off from our 
share in things which to our neighbors seem desirable 
privileges." The Sunday-school teacher can use this 
tendency to great advantage. "To get to Sunday- 
school as early as John," "to give as good attention to 
the lesson as Henry gives," "to know my lesson as well 
as Mary knows her lesson," "to recite my verse as well 
as Sarah recites her verse," — these are motives which 
are perfectly wholesome in Sunday-school teaching and 
may be legitimately appealed to by the teacher. The 
sight of effort in another may awaken and keep effort 
in ourselves: the teacher approves John's conduct, his 

[98] 



ATTENTION AND INTEREST 

recitation of a verse of scripture, his answer to a 
question, or his general conduct, and immediately 
others in the class crave the same approval and strive 
for it. Not only will children emulate others, but they 
can be taught to emulate themselves, that is, their 
former selves, to make improvement in their work over 
a former time. The tendency is so powerful an ally 
for the teacher that she can ill afford not to use it. 
It is at this point, too, that the argument in favor of 
some form of recognition of superior work in the 
Sunday-school, such as prizes, and distinctions, may 
be made. 



Pugnacity and Pride 

Although these tendencies have been called unworthy 
passions, there are refined forms of them which may 
be used in all teaching, in the Sunday-school as well 
as the public school. But by pugnacity and pride we 
do not mean physical combativeness, but an unwilling- 
ness to be defeated by difficulty. It is foolish to 
suppose that every lesson in the Sunday-school can 
be interesting to the pupils; there are times when the 
fighting element in the children must be used. The 
child may be led to be ashamed of being late, of not 
knowing his lesson, of not giving reverent attention 
to the lesson story that is being told, of not having 
his lesson book; "rouse his pugnacity and pride, and 
he will rush at the difficult places with a sort of inner 
wrath at himself that is one of the best moral faculties. 
A victory scored under such conditions becomes a 
turning-point and crisis of his character. It represents 
the high-water mark of his powers, and serves there- 
after as an ideal pattern for his self-imitation. The 
teacher who never rouses this sort of pugnacious excite- 

[99] 



SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING 

ment in his pupils falls short of one of the best forms of 
usefulness." 1 

Other Tendencies 

The foregoing list of a few of the more useful tenden- 
cies, impulses, capacities, or reactions found in children, 
may be sufficient to indicate their use to teachers in 
the Sunday-school. There are others, however, which 
may be briefly mentioned at this point, which serve 
as a means of indirect instruction. 

Ownership, the Collecting Tendency 

Nearly all children collect something, and the instinct 
of ownership seems to appear early. Objects which 
may not be very interesting in themselves may be 
the means of acquiring interest in more worthy objects. 
A collector of stamps, of coupons, of pictures, of shells, 
etc., may later become a collector of important facts, 
of verses of scripture, of information concerning Bible 
customs or Bible geography, which may prove to be 
very useful. The tactful teacher will use this tendency 
to get the pupils to learn Bible verses, to keep neat 
lesson books, and to acquire an interest in much that 
is historical and geographical in the lesson material. 

Play 

This is a tendency or an activity which is followed 
for the pleasure or satisfaction which the tendency or 
activity itself affords. Normal children are instinc- 
tively active; and when the vitality characteristic of 
young children disappears, the value of play as an 
educative agency will also disappear. There are some 
very natural objections to play as an ally or help in the 

1 James, Talks to Teachers, p. 55. 

[100] 



ATTENTION AND INTEREST 

Sunday-school or even the public school. It is not 
altogether true, however, that the child should not be 
forced to do something which he does not want to do. 
Yet the play spirit does have a place, with very young 
children, even in the Sunday-school room. And if 
properly controlled and properly used there is not the 
slightest danger of cultivating habits of irreverence or 
carelessness. Dramatization, for example, under a 
careful and skilful teacher, can be used to advantage 
in classes of very young children in the Sunday-school, 
just as instruction, in a play form, is often given in 
the public school. 

Tendency to Repeat 

There seems to be a natural tendency in children to 
repeat, — to repeat actions, to do things over and over. 
And because repetition is an important means to 
learning, it is possible by this tendency for the teacher 
to establish in children certain forms of very beneficial 
behavior. When properly utilized as a means of 
imparting knowledge and of forming useful habits it 
becomes very serviceable to Sunday-school work. 

The Teacher's Working Capital 

These native interests of children which have been 
described in the foregoing pages are practically all 
the teacher has to begin with. Her task then, as has 
already been pointed out, is to appeal to these present 
interests. When they are properly appealed to, 
attention in the class will most likely take care of itself. 
Making the lesson material interesting does not mean 
amusing or entertaining the pupil; efforts to make the 
lesson "interesting" or "entertaining" may awaken 
interest in the wrong thing. Stories which do not 
lead away from the point of the lesson may be used; 

[101] 



SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING 

and illustrations, properly used, are helpful. But if 
the lesson material has been properly selected, it 
already has some inherent, natural interest for the 
child. The teacher should remember that she does 
not have to create interest, but to develop that which 
already exists in those she is teaching. The pupils are 
already interested in something: this is the place for 
the teacher to start. Interesting the pupil and getting 
him to understand the lesson are one and the same 
thing; and an object, a lesson, or an idea, which in 
itself is not interesting, may, if the teacher is skilful, 
be made interesting by associating it with an object, 
a lesson, or an idea in which there is interest. The 
teacher in the Sunday-school should learn to set 
desirable copies for imitation; to give the curious 
tendency in children something worthy and noble to 
pry into and to explore; and to give the fighting element 
in boys something worth while to defeat. A fighter of 
boys may later become a fighter of wrongs ! 

Practical Suggestions 

There are certain external ways of arousing and 
keeping attention which may be regarded as perfectly 
legitimate and wholesome. Children are naturally 
interested, we have learned, in new things, active and 
moving things, new ways of doing and saying things, 
and this principle finds its proof in certain methods and 
devices which have become well established in good 
Sunday-school teaching. 

1. First of all the teacher must herself be alert and 
active; she must take the lesson, just like a story, from 
point to point, until it reaches the climax or the thought 
which it seeks to teach. She must change her way and 
method of asking questions, for example, seeking out 
the listless ones and giving them something to do. 

[102] 



ATTENTION AND INTEREST 

Activity is the thing the teacher should seek: put the 
old in the new, the new in terms of old, introducing a 
subject which may seem remote from the child's 
interests in terms with which he is already familiar, 
mentioning concrete and definite examples in which 
the child may have an interest. 

2. Remember that interest is a condition to and 
attention a result of good teaching. Attention in the 
class is usually fair proof that good teaching goes on there. 

3. Remember also that you are having a great deal 
to do with helping your pupils form mental habits. 
If not habits of attention then habits of inattention are 
being formed in your class. If, therefore, you cannot 
have attention, it is better not to try to teach. "At- 
tention is the one habit of the mind which perhaps more 
than any other, forms a safeguard for intellectual 
progress; . . . Every time a child comes into your 
class, this habit is either strengthened or weakened." 

4. See that all distractions to attention are removed. 
If your class cannot have a room to itself, then separate 
it from the other classes if by nothing more than a 
curtain or a screen. Get rid, first of all, of all those 
distractions to attention which lie within your power 
to remove. 

5. The physical conditions of the room may have 
something to do with attention in your class. If the 
seats are not comfortable, if the air is not good, if the 
light and heat of the room are not wholesome, you 
need not expect the best results from your work. 

6. The children should be seated, if possible, in a 
semicircle, so that the teacher can see and be near to 
each of them. When they are seated in a straight 
row those at either end and furthest away from the 
teacher may feel neglected. This is a dangerous state 
of mind for young children to get in. 

[103] 



SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING 

7. See that the administrative part of the school 
does not interrupt your teaching. The class should 
not be disturbed by the secretary of the school or any 
assistant in collecting the contribution or report of the 
class. Send your report and contribution to the 
secretary at the end of the teaching period or before 
you begin your teaching. This is very important. 

8. Every class should have a blackboard if possible; 
it is a valuable aid to teaching and a great help in 
keeping attention. Both young and old like active, 
moving things. Small, movable blackboards, either 
on standards or on the wall, will answer your purpose, 
though if you have a room of your own, the blackboard 
should be built into one side of the room. The smaller, 
movable one can be secured at small expense from 
dealers in school furniture. 

9. Learn to use effective illustrations and to tell 
stories to your children. The practice that is necessary 
to acquire proficiency in this part of teaching will serve 
you well. Be sure, however, that your illustrations 
and stories are within the range of your pupils' ex- 
perience, and more familiar to them than the thought 
which you are trying to teach. Study some good book 
on story-telling. 1 Some of the most effective lessons 
we teach or learn are not always in the form of a lesson 
but in the form of illustrations and stories. 

10. Make use of pictures which will help to make 
Bible lessons real and vivid; masterpieces of religious 
art, such as Hofman's "Christ and the Rich Young 
Ruler," "Christ Among the Doctors," Plockhorst's 
"The Good Shepherd," Raphael's "The Sistine Ma- 
donna," and others; maps of various kinds; and use 
any other helps that may be of service in creating real 
interest in the usual work of the class. 

1 See list of books at end of this chapter. 

[104] 



ATTENTION AND INTEREST 

SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY 

Books 

Adams, Primer on Teaching, Charles Scribner's Sons, New 
York. 

Athearn, The Church School, The Pilgrim Press, Boston. 

Bagley and Colvin, Human Behavior, The Macmillan 
Company, New York. 

Bryan, How to Tell Stories to Children, Houghton Mifflin 
Company, New York. 

Coe, Education in Religion and Morals, F. H. Revell 
Company, New York. 

DuBois, The Point of Contact in Teaching, Dodd, Mead 
and Company, New York. 

Fitch, The Art of Securing and Holding Attention, A. 
Flanagan Company, Chicago. 

Haslett, The Pedagogical Bible School, F. H. Revell Com- 
pany, New York. 

Hervey, Picture Work, F. H. Revell Company, New York. 

Houghton, Telling Bible Stories, Charles Scribner's Sons, 
New York. 

James, Talks to Teachers, Henry Holt and Company, 
New York. 

King, The Psychology of Child Development, University 
of Chicago Press, Chicago. 

Kirkpatrick, Fundamentals of Child Study, Houghton 
Mifflin Company, New York. 

Smith, Games and Plays for Children, A. Flanagan Com- 
pany, Chicago. 

Strayer, A Brief Course in the Teaching Process, The 
Macmillan Company, New York. 

Wells, Sunday-school Success, F. H. Revell Company, 
New York. 

Weigle, The Pupil and the Teacher, George H. Doran 
Company, New York. 

Wyche, Some Great Stories and How to Tell Them, New- 
som and Company, New York. 

Exercises 

1. What are some of the distractions to attention in your 
class that you can remove? 

2. Is interest an end or a means to education? 

[105] 



SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING 

3. Why will pupils usually pay better attention to what a 
teacher does than to what the same teacher says ? 

4. What are the principal features of a good story? 

5. What do you understand by " indirect teaching" ? 

6. What is the objection to popping the finger in order to 
get the attention of the class? 

7. What is your criticism of this: A teacher said to a 
little boy who was inattentive and inclined to be troublesome 
in class, " John, I cannot love little boys who don't pay at- 
tention to the teaching of the word of God. Now, will you 
please be quiet? " 

8. How would you get a " point of contact " with a class 
of fifteen-year old girls in teaching the parable of the Wedding 
Guests (Luke 14: 7-14)? 

9. In what way do the instincts (natural tendencies) 
furnish a basis for moral and religious instruction? 

10. How can you use the instinct of imitation in your class? 

11. What are the arguments for and against a system of 
awards, prizes, and distinctions in Sunday-school work? 

12. Can you name any troublesome things which children 
do in Sunday-school classes which may be explained by bad 
health, or by bad conditions in their homes or in the class- 
room ? 



[106] 



CHAPTER VIII 
The Art of Questioning 

Teaching Defined 

Teaching may be defined as the art of stimulating 
mental growth, or the art of communicating knowledge. 
This knowledge may be fact, a truth, a religious prin- 
ciple, or the process of an activity. The process of 
teaching may take place by the use of words, signs, 
symbols, actions, or by examples. Whatever the things 
taught, the aim of teaching, or the method used in the 
teaching, the process is practically the same. It is 
the reproduction in the mind of the pupil of something 
that is in the mind of the teacher. And the value of 
the lesson, whether it be a lesson in the catechism, the 
Lord's Prayer, or a lesson in geography or swimming, 
depends upon the degree in which it is actually received 
and appropriated by the learner. 

The Importance of the Question 

One of the most important instruments of instruction 
is the question; and of the two methods most used in 
teaching, the lecture method and the question method, 
the latter, in the Sunday-school particularly, is most 
effective. Because the time for actual teaching is so 
short in the Sunday-school the importance of the 
question is at once evident. As was pointed out in 
Chapter V, the wise planning of "pivotal" questions 
on every lesson is a vital part of the teacher's prepara- 
tion. Good questions reduce the difficulty of class 
management and mean better teaching. Nothing can 
awaken and keep awake a listless class so well as 

[107] 



SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING 

definite, concise, stimulating questions. They are one 
of the most powerful devices in the entire teaching 
process, and proficiency in their use may be obtained 
by any patient, thoughtful teacher who is willing to 
work at the art. 

The Abuse of the Question 

The use of the question in teaching has often been 
misunderstood, as may be shown by a study of the 
question often heard in both the Sunday-school and 
the secular school. Its purpose is not always to test 
the pupil's knowledge; skilful teachers use it to 
stir the emotions of their pupils to stimulate and to 
guide them, and to keep their minds actively on the 
lesson material. Questions which can be answered 
by mere appeals to the memory are valueless, except 
for examination and review purposes. Unless they 
stimulate thought and mental exercise, — unless they 
provoke thought, — questions lose their intended 
effect. This information or knowledge-testing question 
is a type too often used in the Sunday-school. 

Yes and No Questions 

Another type no better than the testing type is the 
so-called direct question, one which may usually be 
answered by "yes" or "no." "Was Jesus crucified 
between two thieves?" and "Did Peter deny his Lord 
three times?" are of this kind. For the young and 
inexperienced teacher, such questions as these are 
dangerous to experiment with, because they do not 
help carry on the work of instruction in a vital way. 
Such questions are almost always a mark of poor 
teaching. The inflection of the teacher's voice is 
usually all that a pupil needs in order to answer such 
a question with considerable credit. 

[108] 



ART OF QUESTIONING 

Answer-Suggesting Questions 

The question which suggests the answer is also very 
poor. This kind of question is the result of an attempt 
to develop with the pupils a principle for which they 
have no sufficient knowledge or experience. The 
teacher is merely trying to obtain the answer she is 
seeking, without leading the pupil to think, and her 
ambition to get the correct answer leads her to put 
the question in such a form as to suggest its answer. 
This, however, does not stimulate the pupil to any 
mental exercise; and unless a question does do this it 
is not a good one. No reflection is necessary to 
answer the following questions: "What should we do 
if an enemy hunger?" or "What did Jesus cast out?" 
or "What did Joshua command to stand still?" Such 
questions as these not only suggest their own answers, 
but the answers come as a result of little but mere 
mechanical laws of association. They do not demand 
a reorganization of the experience or of the information 
or knowledge of the pupils in order properly to be 
answered. Fewer of this kind, and more questions 
which will stimulate the pupils to thought, are a great 
need of Sunday-school instruction. 

The Value of Good Questions 

It has already been stated that the asking of good 
questions requires careful thought, and that a few 
should be previously planned for every lesson. A few 
well-planned questions will often enliven and make 
more vivid and interesting an otherwise uninteresting 
lesson and lesson period. The awakening power of a 
really live question is found largely in the principle 
of shock; a live question will startle the intelligence of 
the class and challenge attention to the topic the 
teacher wishes to consider. Unless we have at least 

[109] 



SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING 

a few such questions in the Sunday-school, lessons 
there will continue to be "heard" by the teacher, and 
there will be too much reciting what the book says 
and too little genuine teaching. The element of the 
unexpected and of the unfamiliar produces valuable 
effects in teaching. The right kind of questions will 
"surprise the mind with some fresh and novel view" 
of the topic and will demand new thought. 

May Be Used to Test the Pupil's Knowledge 

These thought-stimulating questions may also be 
used as questions to test the pupil's knowledge or 
information. If the teacher in the Sunday-school is 
trying to discover whether or not her pupils have 
prepared their lessons, she may have a tendency to 
use the examination question almost entirely. In this 
practice is found another common error in teaching. 
Questions which are really stimulating to thought not 
only demand the information called for by the purely 
test question, but they demand the ability to use that 
information. If the lesson has been properly assigned, 
the children will have had specific problems to solve 
from information in that lesson. And in the recita- 
tion, the skilful teacher calls for the solution of those 
same problems or asks those same questions she asked 
when she assigned the lesson a week before. 

The Preparation Question 

There are usually three kinds of questions used in 
the ordinary recitation, — the preparation or prelimi- 
nary question, the instructive question, and the 
examination or testing question. Preparation ques- 
tions are those which put the teacher in touch with her 
pupils' ideas concerning the topic under consideration 
and which are largely intended to get the class curious 

[110] 



ART OF QUESTIONING 

and anxious to see the teacher's method of handling 
the topic. By such questions the teacher undertakes 
to prepare the class for a proper understanding of the 
new material. 

The Instructive Question 

This kind of question is employed in actual teaching, 
in instructing the pupils, in stimulating them to 
thought, and in compelling them, by the very nature 
of the case, to reflect on the lesson material. The good 
teacher employs this question more than any other 
kind, and if properly used it reveals the art of the real 
teacher. 

The Examination or Testing Question 

As its name implies, the proper place for this question 
is in the review or in testing to discover whether or not 
the work has been thoroughly done. The value of 
such questions is in the necessity for a general view of 
the entire subject, or the work of a certain period, 
which has been studied. Such questions as these are 
used in the public schools as the basis of promotion 
from one grade to another, and some such basis for 
promotion is needed in the Sunday-school. Sunday- 
school work and Sunday-school teaching would then 
be dignified as never before. 

Concerning Questioning 

Not only does the good teacher consider the form 
of her questions, but she also gives thought to the 
manner of asking questions. Although smaller classes 
are found in the Sunday-school than in the public 
school, a mistake of questioning so prevalent in the 
latter institution has also found its way into the 

mi] 



SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING 

Sunday-school. This is the practice of questioning the 
brightest pupils to the neglect and exclusion of the 
less alert and capable ones. Such an unequal dis- 
tribution of questions often explains an apparent lack 
of interest on the part of some pupils, and may result 
in a certain unwholesome sensitiveness which some- 
times appears in students of all kinds, young and old. 

Repeated Questions 

Teachers in the Sunday-school need to know that 
the children they teach are, even during the too brief 
period of thirty or forty minutes' instruction every 
Sunday, forming mental habits. If these habits are 
not habits of attention, they are habits of inattention. 
To one who has observed Sunday-school teaching, an 
evident lack of interest is traceable to the habit teachers 
have of repeating their questions to the class. A boy 
is asked a question, and appears not to have heard it, 
and the teacher unhesitatingly repeats the question. 
In a class where this custom prevails the children 
inevitably form the worst kind of mental habit: they 
soon become accustomed to waiting until the question 
is repeated before they give attention. 

Repeated Answers 

Repeating the answers for the class is equally as bad 
as repeating the questions. Not a few teachers are 
weak at this point. It is the worst sort of pedagogical 
habit, and shows how prevalent among teachers is the 
belief that the chief business of the question is to test 
the pupil's knowledge of facts. Talk and conversation 
concerning the lesson material and the lesson thought 
in the Sunday-school should take place under as natural 
and normal conditions as serious conversation else- 
where. Sunday-school pupils should be taught and 

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ART OF QUESTIONING 

encouraged to talk among themselves about the lesson 
and other questions which may arise in Sunday-school 
instruction, rather than to talk to the teacher. Only 
then will actual life conditions be duplicated in the 
work of the Sunday-school. When a child addresses 
his answer to the teacher, who gives it in turn back to 
the class, the social value of the recitation is lost. 
Repetition by the teacher of answers given by the 
pupils is an unwise and harmful practice. 

Questioning the Pupils in Order 

In small classes such as are found in the Sunday- 
school, the danger of a methodical and mechanical 
order of questioning is not so great as in the public 
school. But to question the pupils from one end of 
the row to the other in a systematic and regular order 
is not a good practice for Sunday-school teachers to 
form. It is better to ask the questions in such an 
order as to prevent the pupils from knowing who will 
be called next. This method will insure activity and 
alertness, which are ideal conditions in the recitation. 
If the question is given in regular order the temptation 
for the boy or the girl who has just answered is to let 
the mind relax and wander perhaps until his or her 
time again arrives. 

The Pupil's Questions 

Thoughtful, well-prepared, and properly asked ques- 
tions almost always provoke pertinent and significant 
questions from the pupils themselves. The questions 
which a class asks are usually an index of their interest. 
Children who think in the recitation and who have 
problems of their own, which the lesson material 
should suggest, will ask intelligent questions. Good 
teaching will provoke such questions. Here is another 

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SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING 

point at which good habits or bad ones, — depending 
on the ability of the teacher — may be seen. Children 
should be taught to address their questions to the class 
and not to the teacher. The teacher should act, a part 
of the time at least, as "chairman of discussion." The 
questions which a class has to ask are a good test of the 
teacher's ability to do genuine teaching. It has been 
found advantageous to have the children bring in and 
to propose to each other questions on the subject 
matter of the lesson. This is a very helpful form of 
mental exercise and can be used to good effect with 
older children. 

Wrong Answers 

A fundamental law in psychology is here evident. 
Foolish answers to serious questions in the Sunday- 
school class indicate bad discipline; and such conduct 
should be treated as an offense of disrespect, careless- 
ness, and irreverence. But mistakes from children who 
are earnest and respectful should be treated with 
extreme tact. If the teacher does not show tact in 
dealing with a child whose answer to a question is 
wrong, the pupil making the mistake may grow dis- 
couraged and await with little spirit the teacher's 
next question. His feeling of incompleteness and 
uncertainty baffles and subdues him. Tact in handling 
an answer wide of the mark, on the other hand, may 
impel the child to additional effort in the preparation 
and study of the lesson next time. The love of approval 
and the fear of disapproval are deep in all of us. 

Characteristics of Good Questions 

We have seen that a good question kindles curiosity, 
sets and keeps the mind in action, and keeps it in 
action towards the central thought of the lesson. 

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ART OF QUESTIONING 

Good questions, therefore, are always planned with 
reference to the logical steps of the lesson plan. They 
reveal a problem which the pupils will desire to solve; 
they enable the pupils to contribute all their informa- 
tion to the solution of this problem, and they lead the 
pupils finally to discover for themselves how the central 
thought of the lesson bears on their everyday living. 

The Language of a Good Question 

The good question is always clear and definite and 
always set in the simplest language. It contains but 
a few words, and is adapted to the age and experience 
of the class to which it is directed. "It is a great point 
in questioning to say as little as possible." The best 
questions are those which attract the least attention 
to the teacher; plainness of language, therefore, is a 
good rule for teachers to use in making questions for 
their classes. 

Announcing the Question First 

The good questioner will always announce the 
question and then after a short pause will designate 
the pupil to answer. The wait between the announce- 
ment of the question and the naming of the pupil to 
answer, allows the class to become active and to reflect 
and to adjust their information to the point made by 
the question. If the child is designated by the teacher 
and the question then asked, practically every member 
of the group, except the one answering, may become 
temporarily inattentive. And no thought is in this 
way stimulated. 

The Need in This Part of Teaching 

We have already seen that the function of the 
question is to set the pupils to thinking. Good 

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SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING 

questions promote mental activity, arouse a vital 
interest in the lesson material, suggest vital problems 
for the pupils to solve, and tend to develop their highest 
intellectual powers. It is possible for every teacher 
in the Sunday-school to improve at this point. There 
is no aspect of the teacher's entire preparation of any 
lesson which promises greater reward than systematic 
preparation for asking intelligent and thought-provok- 
ing questions. Conscientious and thoughtful prepara- 
tion here means superior teaching ability, and good 
teachers always go to their classes with such preparation. 
To depend on the inspiration of the moment in this 
important part of teaching is wasteful and dangerous. 

SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY 
Books 

DeGarmo, Interest and Education, The Macmillan Com- 
pany, New York. 

Fitch, The Art of Questioning, A. Flanagan Company, 
Chicago. 

Home, The Art of Questioning, The Pilgrim Press, Boston. 

Strayer, A Brief Course in the Teaching Process, The 
Macmillan Company, New York. 

Weigle, The Pupil and the Teacher, George H. Doran 
Company, New York. 

Exercises 

1. What is the chief business of the question in the Sunday- 
school? 

2. What objection is there to the so-called leading or 
suggesting questions? 

3. How many questions did you ask your class last 
Sunday? 

4. Mention one or more questions which you used last 
Sunday which worked well. Why did they work well? 

5. How can you attract the attention of every member of 
your class to the central thought of the lesson by the ques- 
tions which you ask? 

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ART OF QUESTIONING 

6. What part does the question occupy in your usual 
lesson plan? 

7. What is the objection to repeating the answer which 
one of your pupils gives? 

8. Do your pupils ask questions in the class? To whom? 

9. Criticize the following questions and tell their weak- 
nesses: 

" John, don't you think it was magnanimous in Abram to 
concede the best of the territory to his relative? " (John is 
twelve years of age.) Revise the question. 

" Henry, will you sum up the points in to-day's lesson? " 

" Of whom was Saul jealous and why? " 

" Who killed a thousand men with what strange weapon? " 

" What did Samuel offer when he went up to Jesse's home?" 

10. What is the advantage of having the class ask 
questions ? 

11. How can you use the question to good advantage in 
the assignment of the lesson? Illustrate with the lesson of the 
Good Samaritan. 

12. Write out two or three good questions you would ask 
a group of boys twelve or fourteen years of age on the 
lesson of the merchant seeking goodly pearls (Matthew 
13:45,46). 

13. Study the questions which Jesus asked and note their 
characteristics. 



[117] 



CHAPTER IX 
Using the Pupil's Memory 

The Place of Memory in Sunday-School Work 

Of the first fourteen or fifteen years of the child's 
life, which are the years for training the memory, the 
years from six to fifteen seem to be the best for this 
training. Memory work, then, should become a very 
vital part of the work of the Sunday-school, and should 
not be regarded as something apart from the regular 
study and life of the school. And the teacher there 
should see to it that a vital and not a mechanical use 
be made of the memory, so that ideas may be made 
more usable when they are needed. If the statement 
of William James is true, that "No truth, however 
abstract, is ever perceived that will not probably at 
some time influence our earthly action," the importance 
of this part of instruction is evident at once. Careful 
studies of the memory have led to certain conclusions 
which the Sunday-school teacher should bear in mind 
in her work: 1 

1. Memory does not increase in power very much 
after the fourteenth or fifteenth year; childhood, then, 
is the time for memorizing those things which are worth 
while. 

2. Children should be taught to study so that 
things may be learned in the most economical fashion. 
Sunday-school teachers should study with their classes 
a few times in order to show them how to use their 
Bible and any helps which they may have for Bible 

1 See Sandiford, Mental and Physical Life of School Children, 
Chapter XL Longmans, Green and Company, New York. 

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USING THE PUPIL'S MEMORY 

study, such as concordances, encyclopedias, maps 
and outlines. 

3. Memories of children are much more efficient 
than teachers usually believe and most children from 
nine to fifteen years of age are probably capable of 
committing to memory, without unnecessary strain, 
between two thousand and three thousand one-line 
passages and verses every year, a large part of which 
will remain as "permanent possessions for life." 

Uses of the PupiPs Memory 

What should the teacher in the Sunday-school expect 
of the memory of her pupils, — what should she expect 
them to do besides answering the questions she asks? 
There are several things she has a right to expect of 
them: 

1. First of all, she expects the memory of the pupils 
to be of service to them when reciting the lesson. She 
relies on their memory to help her develop the lesson 
story and the thought of the lesson in their own minds. 
By memory we mean the associative processes by which 
a pupil goes from one idea to another. 

2. In the second place, the teacher in the Sunday- 
school can use the memory of her pupils in reviewing, 
organizing and putting together the important parts 
of a given lesson, or of a series of two or more lessons. 
This is an important use of the memory in all forms 
of teaching. 

3. The practice of having children memorize certain 
passages and verses from the scriptures leads the teacher 
in the Sunday-school to expect her pupils to say things 
"by heart." A great deal of that which is learned by 
heart by children may not, while it is being learned, be 
thoroughly understood by them. But the value of this 
practice will be pointed out later. 

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SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING 

4. Many things which the children may not learn 
to quote verbatim may remain as ideals for them. 
They may not remember how or exactly when they 
learned them, but the teacher may expect them to stay 
with the children as ideals for their conduct. 

5. The teacher in the Sunday-school has no right 
to expect her pupils to remember everything she 
teaches them. But there is a distinct value in knowing 
hymns, passages and verses of scripture, references to 
Biblical history and geography. They will become 
" permanent possessions," and, if properly learned will 
come to the aid of the children when needed in later 
years. 

These uses in the Sunday-school of the memory of 
the pupils will be taken up in the following consideration 
of the general subject of memory and memorizing. 

Some Aspects of Memory 

Two things are involved in the ideal mentioned at 
the outset of this chapter, that memory should be used 
to make ideas of more practical use. These things are 
retentiveness and recall, the ability to keep in mind 
a thing, a fact, or a passage of scripture; and the 
ability to call it up when needed. In other words, 
the idea must not fade away, and it must come when 
it is needed. A good memory is one which serves its 
owner well, and its goodness depends on the persistence 
of the impressions made when the thing to be learned 
is presented to the mind, and on the number of 
associations formed with it. 

The Basal Elements 

The two principal and important elements in memory, 
then, are impression and association. A very large part 
of effective memory depends on association, the manner 

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USING THE PUPIL'S MEMORY 

in which the thing to be remembered is linked up with 
other things. The task of the Sunday-school teacher, 
therefore, is to see in all her teaching first, that the 
impressions are properly made, — that when a thing 
is presented to the child it must be made clear and 
must be understood; and second, that as many helpful 
associations as possible must be formed with the thing 
which has been presented. Unless the fact, event, 
verse of scripture, or whatever is to be learned, makes 
an impression when it is presented, and unless, further, 
it is linked up with as many associations as possible, 
recall of that fact, thing, event, verse of scripture, or 
whatever is to be learned, is not assured. The principle 
of multiplying these varying associations and appeals 
is an important one, not only for teaching pupils in the 
Sunday-school how to remember, but for teaching 
them to understand that which they remember. The 
Sunday-school teacher should also keep in mind that 
in actual life "our memory is always used in the service 
of some interest: we remember things which we care 
for or which are associated with things we care for. . . ." 

The Law Illustrated 

Try to call to mind something taught you as a 
child that has faded away from memory now, and 
something taught you at that time which remains with 
you and which is vivid. What is the difference? 
The difference is probably found in the difference 
between something experienced faintly and something 
experienced vividly; something associated with only a 
few things and something associated with many things; 
and something that you have not used and something 
that you have made active use of since your childhood. 
A simple law of memory, then, the teacher in the 
Sunday-school should remember: we retain best that 

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SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING 

which impresses us most deeply, — that which we 
experience most vividly; that which is linked up with 
many other things, ideas, and objects, — that which is 
associated in a great number of ways; and that which 
we have had a chance to use. The teacher's task at 
this point is to see that the lessons which she teaches 
are "retained," and are easily called up when needed. 
And this is really the problem of seeing that the lesson 
is well learned. 

Making Use of Ideas 

When is a lesson well learned? What is the object 
of all Sunday-school teaching? Discussion of these 
two questions will reveal these answers: a child has 
learned a lesson when he is able to use the thought that 
the lesson teaches, or to profit by it; and the proper 
use of the moral and religious knowledge is the object 
of all correct Sunday-school teaching. Knowledge 
without the ability to use it, to apply it to his own 
problems, leaves the pupil theoretical only; and a 
study of any subject which does not, in the end, aifect 
conduct and behavior, is unsuccessful. We should be 
careful here, however, not to give false meanings to 
the word "use." One uses knowledge and information 
of any kind which he has learned when he is inspired 
or made hopeful by it, or by an ideal which he has 
gathered in the past; he uses it when he helps others by 
it; he uses it when it helps him perform his duty to his 
family, to his neighbor, or to God; he uses it whenever 
he turns it to accomplish any specific purpose in his 
daily life. 

The Tendency of Children to Use Ideas 

Living is about the same with young children as it 
is with older people. They live under similar condi- 

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USING THE PUPIL'S MEMORY 

tions, are introduced to the same subjects of study, 
and the object of study is finally the same with one as 
it is with the other. Children should, therefore, be 
taught that to use the lessons and ideals learned is the 
object and aim of their study; and in the Sunday- 
school, the hope of applying these lessons and these 
ideals to their everyday needs can easily be made a 
motive. Children have a natural tendency to do 
something, and it is because they are frequently not 
allowed the opportunity to do this "something" that 
they become discouraged and grow discontented and 
restless. An explanation is probably found here of the 
fact that so many young people leave the Sunday- 
school before they are eighteen years of age. "They 
don't show us anything to do" is not a rare criticism 
made by boys and girls of their Sunday-school teachers. 
The youth is intensely practical; he demands reality. 
The Sunday-school teacher who connects the lessons 
that she teaches with the actual living of her pupils 
and with their dreams of usefulness, is making pro- 
vision for a very prominent and natural tendency of 
the child to express and satisfy itself. She will thus 
be helping to meet the natural demand for reality on 
the part of her pupils. She needs first to get her 
pupils to see and feel the problems which are to be 
solved and then she should study to give her pupils 
definite use of the lessons they have learned. 

The Importance of Drill 

Although waste may result from too much drill in 
the Sunday-school, certain parts of the work there call 
for drill. Those portions of the lesson which are likely 
to be of daily use to the pupils should become second 
nature to them. The influence of maxims, proverbs, 
verses of scripture, comes from the readiness with which 

[123] 



SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING 

they may be recalled, and the power of recalling this 
kind of material comes only through intelligent repeti- 
tion. Good memorizing is a form of good thinking; 
by it children in the Sunday-school, as well as in the 
public school, may acquire valuable habits of study. 
Not only should the words themselves be memorized, 
but the meaning of the passages to be memorized 
should be within the range of the experience and 
ability of the children. This, however, does not mean 
that children should memorize only those things which 
they understand; much material which children may 
memorize is especially suitable for inspiration and for 
the awakening of the feelings. If children in the 
Sunday-school are taught to memorize intelligently, 
and to drill the memorized portions intelligently, they 
will acquire valuable mental habits which will continue 
with them, and truths and feelings will be gradually 
brought into consciousness in a powerful and helpful 
manner. With children from nine to twelve years of 
age, the so-called Junior Department in the Sunday- 
school, drill work is most important. 

What Should be Memorized 

By "memorizing" we do not here mean an artificial, 
parrot-like use of the memory; the principles which 
underlie memory, discussed above, are rarely ever seen 
to apply in artificial memorizing. But they do apply 
when intelligent memorizing is carried on, and when 
the materials to be memorized are carefully selected. 
Certain principles, therefore, should be observed in 
the selection of passages, verses, or materials of any 
kind to be memorized in the Sunday-school. 

1. Passages should be chosen which express that 
which is already more or less real to the children. 
Passages with reality should come first and those which 

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USING THE PUPIL'S MEMORY 

are more or less symbolic follow. Those which have 
real meaning are more desirable, especially for children 
from nine to twelve years of age. 

2. Passages which have reference or connection 
with the situation or condition to which attention is 
being drawn should be memorized. For example, 
there are certain Psalms of thanksgiving which could be 
emphasized, which the children could memorize during 
the thanksgiving season. And similar passages which 
have a great deal of value could be selected with 
reference to the Christmas and Easter seasons. The 
kind of lesson, the season of the year, the presence of 
certain church festivals, etc., should govern the selec- 
tion of this kind of memory material. 1 

3. Those passages which the teacher selects for her 
pupils to memorize should be used. Unless they are 
used they lose much of their meaning; if they are used, 
they become more real and the pupils can see some 
purpose in the work of memorizing. They may be 
used in recitation or declamation work, Bible drill, 
dramatization, or in some form of the church worship. 
By this means the pupils will see that memorized verses 
and passages serve a present purpose, and fill a real 
need. 

4. Those materials which have a permanent literary, 
religious or spiritual value should be selected to be 
memorized. The experience of those who have memo- 
rized considerably is sufficient testimony that this is a 
vital part of good teaching. 

5. Meaningless materials should not be selected for 
memorizing: the spelling of long lists of unrelated 
words in biblical history and geography, doctrinal 

1 Song of Solomon 2 : 11-12; 7 : 13; 2 Samuel 23 : 4; Leviticus 
26 : 4 represent what is meant by material selected with reference to 
some season, or some particular kind of lesson. 

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SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING 

catechisms, and unrelated facts of all kinds. And 
children should not be allowed to learn cheap poetry 
or silly, trashy music in the work of the Sunday-school. 
6. There is certain technical material which the 
child should know, and most of it will probably come 
only through memorizing. For instance, he should 
know the books of the Bible, the number of books in 
the Old Testament, certain facts about biblical geog- 
raphy, the names and number of the apostles, certain 
facts in the life of Christ, certain facts about Old Testa- 
ment history, and such other technical material which 
seems more or less unrelated, but which is, after all, 
valuable for the child to know. Unless he learn this 
during the age for verbal memory, he will probably go 
through life without it. It is perfectly easy to teach 
such material to children without deadening their 
interest or distorting their conceptions of religion. 

Some Suggestions for Memory Work. 

The active and alert teacher will not depend on a 
few isolated "golden texts" given in the uniform 
lessons for the passages for her pupils to memorize. 
She will select those passages which will serve her 
particular pupils best, adapting the passage to the 
child, the seasons, the purposes of the worship, etc. 
The principles suggested above will help her in making 
this selection. 

There are some materials which are not altogether 
full of meaning for children from eight to fourteen 
years of age, but which they will understand sufficiently 
to receive considerable help from: 

Bible Passages 
The Ten Commandments (Exodus 20 : 1-17); 
The Lord's Prayer (Matthew 6 : 9-13); 
The Beatitudes (Matthew 5 : 3-12); 

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USING THE PUPIL'S MEMORY 

The Parable of the Good Shepherd (John 10 : 1-11); 
The Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins (Matthew 
25 : 1-15); 
The Thirteenth Chapter of First Corinthians; 
The First Psalm; 
The Fifteenth Psalm; 

The Nineteenth Psalm; especially verses one to eleven; 
The Twenty-third Psalm; 
The One Hundred-third Psalm; 
The One Hundred-seventeenth Psalm; 
The One Hundred-twenty-first Psalm. 

The teacher could also select from the Proverbs, 
Ecclesiastes, the Song of Solomon, and other portions 
of the Bible, brief passages which her pupils could 
memorize with profit. 

Hymns 
There are certain songs and hymns which touch and 
appeal especially to child life and which should be 
taught in the Sunday-school. The list suggested below 
should be memorized by children from nine to fourteen 
years of age. The teacher should select other songs 
and poems which the children of this age would 
naturally like. This list is merely suggestive. 

My Faith Looks up to Thee, Palmer; 
Savior, Like a Shepherd, Lead Us, Thrupp; 
Jesus Shall Reign Where'er the Sun, Watts; 
Lead, Kindly Light, Newman; 
Jesus, Lover of My Soul, Wesley; 
Nearer, My God, to Thee, Adams; 
Abide With Me, Lyte; 
Come, Thou Almighty King, Wesley; 
Holy, Holy, Holy, Heber; 
Faith of Our Fathers, Faber. 

The Doctrinal Catechism in the Sunday-School 

Although the teaching of the doctrinal catechism is 
not so prevalent a custom in the Sunday-school as it 

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SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING 

once was, no consideration of the place and uses of the 
child's memory in Sunday-school work would be 
complete without a word on this subject. The chief 
value that can come to a child from statements of 
truths or of doctrines depends almost entirely on the 
extent to which he understands those truths and 
doctrines. They must, like any other material which 
he studies, be related in the mind of the child to other 
facts and knowledge there. If this condition does not 
exist, the end which the teacher seeks, that of getting 
the child to accept a certain doctrine, will naturally be 
defeated. The plasticity of the mind of the child is 
the basis for the argument sometimes heard, that 
whatever is introduced to it will continue with him 
until maturity. Here is found the basis for the doc- 
trinal catechetical work of the Sunday-school, and the 
memorization of points of doctrine and catechism. 
The mind of the child, however, is not a reservoir into 
which may be poured the facts or information of 
whatever kind, to be drawn on when needed. More- 
over, the injury that may result from too much memo- 
rizing of doctrinal catechism is to be considered: the 
child's interest may be deadened, his development 
may be arrested, he may not get the proper con- 
ceptions of religion, and there may be produced in 
him an aversion to religious life. Formal memorization 
of creeds and catechism, until he is able to understand 
them, cannot make of a child an active Christian. 
There must be something more than the formal memory 
work; catechetical and formal memory lessons cannot 
take the place of real, effective teaching. 

Among the arguments in favor of using doctrinal 
catechisms and purely memory lessons in the Sunday- 
school are the following: 1 

1 See Haslett, The Pedagogical Bible School, Chapter XII. 

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USING THE PUPIL'S MEMORY 

1. They furnish definite and concise statements of 
Christian belief. 

2. A body of formulated truth, necessary to guide 
the administration of any church or organization of 
believers, is convenient and practical. 

3. The mind of the child can get these truths and 
he can call them into service when he needs them and 
when he has developed sufficiently to understand them. 

4. There is a natural objection in the church to 
allowing its children to grow up in ignorance of the 
doctrines and belief of the church and of the Christian 
faith. 

Some of the objections to formal memory work in 
doctrinal catechism are: 1 

1. ^ This method of instruction does not aid the 
individual towards Christian maturity, and makes little 
or no provision for real growth in religious character. 

2. It tends to hinder later thoughtful study of the 
Bible in its various aspects, a practice which is growing 
less and less prevalent among young people, but which 
is needed more than ever. This suggests the need of 
teaching the Bible rather than something vague about 

3. The doctrinal catechetical method is directly 
opposed to the best educational theory. It is the 
"cramming" method of teaching which is universally 
recognized as disreputable because it is positively 
harmful to the mind; it violates the law of interest, the 
law of adaptation, the law of apperception, the law of 
self-activity and other laws of mental development, 
— fundamental laws by which mental progress of 
children in secular schools is secured. 

4. There is not only no biblical warrant for such 

methods of teaching, but the methods used by Christ, 

1 See Haslett, above, and the Biblical World for September 1900 

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SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING 

who is unquestionably the Ideal Teacher, were very 
much unlike the purely doctrinal method. When 
Jesus taught adults, he illustrated in a concrete way 
the principle he sought to teach; and when he taught 
little children, he gave them no abstract doctrine or 
truth to learn. He got "on a plane" with them, 
blessed them and made them feel his sympathy and 
his love. Here is a supreme illustration of Jesus's 
knowledge of child life and child needs. 

5. This form of instruction is no longer necessary as 
a means to an end. It grew out of a mediaeval method 
of Bible and religious teaching which should be regarded 
as useless today. The lengthy reign of worldly 
Romanism produced corruptions in doctrines and 
belief, and Protestantism undertook to restate the 
Christian doctrine. Supreme care had to be exercised 
in the teaching of this restated doctrine; and the teacher 
had no helps such as the modern Sunday-school teacher 
has. Not only has the Sunday-school teacher abundant 
helps today, but she has much of her method outlined 
and prepared for her. The very formal method of 
questions and answers sometimes found in the Sunday- 
school is a degenerate survival of the formal catechism. 
Such methods of teaching may produce the spirit of 
denominationalism and churchmen, but it will not 
create Christians. 

Teaching the Pupils How to Study 

Children in the Sunday-school do not know how to 
study because they have not been taught the art. 
They have not been taught because their teachers and 
their parents who supervise their studies have not 
themselves learned the art, and cannot, therefore, 
teach others. But there are several things which the 
teacher can do which will be of great help to the pupils 

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USING THE PUPIL'S MEMORY 

in the Sunday-school in teaching them how to study 
economically and with effect. And this part of the 
teacher's task is as imperative in the Sunday-school as 
in the public school, where the need for teaching 
children how to study is being so greatly felt and con- 
cerning which so much is now being said. The char- 
acter of teaching done in the Sunday-school or public 
school has, first of all, much to do with determining the 
habits of study of the pupils there. In addition to this, 
the teacher may make specific effort to develop helpful 
habits of study in those whom she teaches. 

1. Children should first of all be taught to set up 
definite purposes for their study. The example must, 
however, always be set by the teacher: the setting of 
some definite problem for them to solve in the prepa- 
ration of their next lesson; suggesting chances for them 
to use what they may learn from this or that lesson; 
pointing out a story which may be memorized for the 
purpose of reciting it, or learned for the purpose of 
telling it to some friend; and other means of setting up 
specific purposes for study will soon develop this 
excellent habit in children. Showing a child in a 
Sunday-school how he can use a lesson which he should 
learn, is one of the best ways to get him to study it 
with a certain degree of intelligence. 

2. Children should also be taught how to make use 
of the Bible, their concordance, map, and any other 
helps which they may have, in preparing their lesson. 
The teacher can also show them how to "supplement" 
the lesson material in other ways. There is no objec- 
tion to allowing the children to use their imagination 
in supplementing the material found in the lesson. 
Suppose the class is studying the story of Abraham 
sacrificing Isaac. Let the class tell of the probable 
conversation between father and son as they journeyed 

[131] 



SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING 

to the place of sacrifice. Or, in studying the story of 
Joseph and the hatred of his brothers for him, the class 
could describe an evening meal in Jacob's house and 
the conversation that probably took place there. 
Other lessons might offer such opportunities as these 
for similar supplementing. And the children could 
also be taught to illustrate stories of this kind from 
their reading outside the Bible. 

3. The teacher can also help her children to develop 
powers of independent judgment. This means direct- 
ing rather than controlling their mental efforts. If 
children are taught the free use of their Bibles; the 
reproduction of lesson stories, and allowed to tell the 
stories in their own way and to comment naturally on 
them; if they are allowed to read freely in class; in 
short, if as much responsibility as possible is placed on 
them, their independence of judgment will soon begin 
to develop. There is a great need that this kind of 
mental habit be developed not only in the Sunday- 
school, but in the public school. 

4. Memorizing is another factor in study which is 
recognized as valuable. Children can be taught how 
to memorize if, as was pointed out above, they are 
given some motive for memorizing. The teacher can 
also rely on the judgment of the children to select 
passages which have some value to them, provided 
they have been given some training in this part of 
their study. 

5. The ability to use the ideas which they have 
learned is another important factor in study. One 
great advantage which should come from good teaching 
in the Sunday-school is the making over into experience 
and habit that which is taught there. All moral and 
religious truths should be thus translated into habit 
and become usable. The pupils should be taught, 

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USING THE PUPIL'S MEMORY 

therefore, for their own rather than for the sake of 
the teacher or to please her. If the teacher can make 
the recitation real rather than artificial, and can make 
it as nearly as possible like real life, then the recitation 
can furnish occasion for a ready use of knowledge. 
Encourage your pupils to discuss things among them- 
selves and to talk, not "before the teacher" merely, 
but with her, to question and to answer each other in 
a natural way. In this manner they will not only 
"learn pointedness in thinking, but they increase and 
test their knowledge by using it." The recitation in 
the Sunday-school, therefore, should be " a social meet- 
ing place: it is to the school what the spontaneous 
conversation is at home, except that it is more or- 
ganized, following definite lines. The recitation be- 
comes the social clearing house, where experience and 
ideas are exchanged and subjected to criticism, where 
misconceptions are corrected, and new lines of thought 
and inquiry are set up." 

This Consideration of Memory Only Suggestive 

The suggestions which have been made in this 
chapter are by no means exhaustive; and the considera- 
tion here given to memory and its place in the Sunday- 
school work is meant to be very elementary. The use 
of the memory in the Sunday-school work, however, 
is entitled to more attention from the teacher, the 
superintendent, the pastor and the parent. It is 
hoped that the suggestions made here may prove of 
help to those teachers who are trying to put the memory 
of their pupils to great use. The active and resourceful 
teacher can make it a means of more interest in her 
teaching. To do this, however, requires some thought 
of the plans for memory work, for Bible drill, for 

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SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING 

dramatization, and for the worship in the Sunday- 
school and church. 

SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY 

Books 

Athearn, The Church School, The Pilgrim Press, Boston. 

Baldwin, The Story of the Mind, D. Appleton and Com- 
pany, New York. 

Chamberlain, Introduction to the Bible for Teachers of 
Children, University of Chicago Press, Chicago. 

Colvin, The Learning Process, The Macmillan Company, 
New York. 

Dewey, The School and Society, University of Chicago 
Press, Chicago. 

Earhart, Teaching Children to Study, Houghton Mifflin 
Company, New York. 

James, Psychology, Chapter on Memory, Henry Holt and 
Company, New York. 

James, Talks to Teachers, Henry Holt and Company, New 
York. 

King, The Psychology of Child Development, University 
of Chicago Press, Chicago. 

Kirkpatrick, The Fundamentals of Child Study, The Mac- 
millan Company, New York. 

Koons, The Child's Religious Life, Methodist Book Con- 
cern, New York. 

McMurry, How to Study and Teaching How to Study, 
Houghton Mifflin Company, New York 

Rusk, Introduction to Experimental Education, Longmans, 
Green and Company, New York. 

Exercises 

1. Show the distinction between impression and associa- 
tion. 

2. Can you tell which one of your pupils has the best 
memory ? How ? 

3. What makes one man's or one child's memory better 
than that of another? 

4. How can one improve his memory? 

5. What evidence have you that your pupils like to put to 
use the ideas they get in your class? 

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USING THE PUPIL'S MEMORY 

6. How much memorizing have you had your pupils do 
this year? 

7. What motive could you give a class of boys ten years 
of age for memorizing the Twenty-third Psalm? 

8. Which is better for a child nine or ten years of age to 
memorize, a portion of doctrinal catechism, or the Ten 
Commandments ? 

9. What do you understand by " drill "? What use do 
you make of it in your class? 

10. Do your pupils know how to study their Sunday-school 
lessons? What do you do to help them in learning how to 
study? 

11. How many hymns has your class memorized this year? 

12. Make up a list of twenty-five passages which you 
think children should be able to quote, or recognize and locate. 

13. What ideals have remained with you as a result of 
memorizing when a child ? 



[135] 



CHAPTER X 

The Teacher's Personality 

Other Parts of Teaching 

So far we have been considering certain rules, laws, 
and principles of teaching, a knowledge of which is 
essential to success in Sunday-school teaching. But 
there are other parts of teaching that cannot be reduced 
to rules and principles. A teacher may know the 
subject which she is to teach; she may be thoroughly 
familiar with her pupils and their varying needs; she 
may know how to adapt the lessons which she teaches 
to their needs; she may have great sympathy with her 
work, and be skilled in the technical side of schoolroom 
practice. She may know and be all this and still be 
unsuccessful. In fact these things alone will give her 
no guarantee to teaching success. Her most successful 
work may be that which does not go by rule. It is 
this part of teaching that is frequently spoken of as 
"personality," a word used to name a quality or 
qualities which condition the teaching process and its 
results. A brief consideration of this part of teaching 
may now be worth while. 

The Personality of the Teacher 

Probably the greatest factor in all teaching success 
is known as the personality of the teacher, a word 
which is hard to define. It is that mysterious "some- 
thing" which is powerful in its influence and far- 
reaching in its effects. Sometimes it is called "personal 
attraction," "personal magnetism," or other terms 
which poorly describe it. It is more than character: 

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THE TEACHER'S PERSONALITY 

it is character with power to reproduce itself in others; 
that power which some people have which enables 
them to influence others. It includes all those peculiar 
powers, in fact, and all those characteristics, which 
make one person different from another. It is physical, 
spiritual, moral and mental, and includes many- 
qualities. 

1. Health is usually given as a very important 
element in the personality of the teacher. Children 
in the Sunday-school, as elsewhere, need and respond 
to the stimulus which naturally comes from contact 
with teachers whose physical vitality challenges 
admiration. This is true of children in every part of 
the Sunday-school, but particularly true of boys and 
girls from twelve to eighteen years of age. Physical 
health and strength are necessary for mental freshness 
and vigor, and for the ability to stimulate, direct and 
control the class, even though the work of the class may 
not exceed thirty or forty minutes. In teaching of 
any kind, the teacher's health is a great asset. It 
is absolutely necessary for successful work and for 
wholesome influence on the pupils. 

2. Of the mental or spiritual qualities which go to 
make up the personality of the teacher none is probably 
more important than that which is known as sympathy. 
The Sunday-school teacher should cultivate a liberal 
mental attitude towards her pupils, a vigorous senti- 
ment which will enable her to "feel with" rather than 
to "feel for" her pupils in all that they do, that she 
may understand their impulses and their tendencies. 
"The consciousness on the part of the pupil that the 
teacher possesses such sympathy or understanding, is 
itself a powerful influence to deter him from wrong- 
doing and to enlist his active co-operation in profitable 
effort." This ability to put yourself in another's place 

[137] 



SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING 

and to appreciate his point of view, is especially valuable 
for the Sunday-school teacher. It is a native endow- 
ment in many people, but it is a quality which can be 
cultivated and developed by a love for and an interest 
in children. "It is the key that unlocks the door to 
youthful confidence, enthusiasm, restraint and effort." 

3. Sincerity or frankness in the teacher's conduct 
and dealings with her pupils is another quality which 
should be found in Sunday-school work. It is a form 
of honesty. There is probably nothing that children 
admire so much in their elders and teachers as frank- 
ness. The teacher in the Sunday-school must have it, 
or her work there will count for nothing. 

4. Self-control is another quality which teachers in 
the Sunday-school should seek to cultivate and develop 
in themselves. Unless they have this quality, they 
need not expect their pupils to acquire it. Self- 
control is largely a matter of health, of nerves, and of 
temperament. It goes by a number of names such as 
steadiness, stability, self-possession and the like. It 
is that thing which prevents the teacher from "going 
to pieces" or "losing her head" in crises or emergencies. 

5. Personal appearance is also implied in personality. 
One may be otherwise qualified to teach and yet be 
handicapped and at a serious disadvantage because 
of certain personal habits or a lack of them. Good 
taste and neatness in dress have a remarkably whole- 
some effect on children, and good manners and suitable 
dress, and correct personal habits are important for 
the Sunday-school teacher. There is perhaps less 
ground for criticism of the Sunday-school teacher at 
this point, however, than there is of the public school 
teacher. 

6. Personality also implies tact, the ability to deal 
safely and wisely with individual children or with the 

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THE TEACHER'S PERSONALITY 

entire class; it implies reserve and dignity; enthusiasm; 
a keen sense of humor; firmness; cheerfulness of manner; 
reasonableness, and other qualities. To be successful 
the teacher must have these and many other qualities, 
and they must be combined in her makeup in a very 
vital way. 

7. For the Sunday-school teacher, consecration and 
spirituality are of primary importance. She is a 
teacher of the most important subject in the entire 
curriculum. Religion is a matter of the heart and of 
life; the Sunday-school teacher's personality and her 
success are dependent largely on the depth of her 
spirituality and the strength of her conviction. She 
must be abounding in the richness of soul. She must 
be exemplary without affectation; she must illustrate 
in her conduct and life what she hopes to realize in 
those whom she teaches. Then and then only will she 
teach when she seems not to be doing anything at all. 
Without these supreme qualities and powers she will 
lack the ability to reach and to stimulate the deepest 
impulses of the race. Without them she cannot be an 
ideal teacher. 

Unconscious Teaching 

It is just this thing of personality, or these qualities 
which we have been considering, which make it possible 
for one to teach without realizing that he is teaching. 
The ultimate aim of the teaching profession is more 
than a mere communication of knowledge and infor- 
mation. Teaching appeals to faith, to hopes, to 
feelings of whatever kind, to the will; it deals with the 
affections, with the emotions and with the intellect. 
What Phillips Brooks said of preaching may also be 
said of teaching. It "is the communication of truth . . . 
it has in it two essential elements, truth and personality. 

[139] 



SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING 

Neither of these can it spare . . . The truth must 
come through the person, not merely over his lips . . 
It must come through his character, his affections, his 
whole intellectual and moral being." It is, therefore, 
not always the subject, nor the method used in teaching 
it, that is of primary importance; but it is the "uplift 
which comes from the heart contact with a great per- 
sonality." The deepest and most lasting impressions 
are often made in our minds independently of language. 
It may be by influence, by associations, by motives 
that lie outside the realm of language. This kind of 
teaching has been called the very highest kind, "most 
charged with moral power, most apt to go down among 
the secret springs of conduct, most effectual for vital 
issues, for the very reason that it is spiritual in its 
character, noiseless in its pretensions, and constant in 
its operation." 

Some Practical Suggestions 

Such impressions and influences spoken of here come 
in a variety of manners and through many channels. 
Certain practical suggestions for the Sunday-school 
teacher appear at once. 

1. Avoid all forms of nervousness, restlessness, and 
anxiety. Ability to control temper and nerves here 
means reliability. Steadiness is a healthy influence 
wherever it appears, and is a quality which excites 
admiration. The temper reveals the real teacher. 

2. The face and voice are also great media for 
expressing nervousness and anxiety, as well as for 
expressing calmness and peace. Make a special effort, 
therefore, to control the pitch and inflection of the 
voice and the expression of the face. It is worth the 
time and effort required to learn what a great power 
is in the voice, and to learn to use it properly in teach- 

[140] 



THE TEACHER'S PERSONALITY 

ing. Listen to great story tellers; notice the effect 
of a high-keyed voice on a group of children; notice 
the effect of a low voice on yourself as well as on others. 
The poorly controlled voice brings weariness and 
fatigue to the teacher and a state of irritability to the 
pupils. A gentle voice indicates self control and is a 
great power in the classroom. 

3. Avoid spasmodic, jerky motions, which indicate 
a lack of poise and of self-control, and which have a 
very bad effect on the pupils. 

4. Commend virtues in your pupils rather than 
condemn their faults. This is the positive way of 
teaching. Emphasize "do" rather than "don't," 
"Walk on the walk" signs rather than "Keep off the 
grass" signs. 

5. Show faith in your pupils, respect for their 
opinions, be frank, make it easy for them to talk to you 
and to ask you questions and to consult you; cultivate 
the sense of humor. This is a great bond of union 
between the teacher and the pupil. 

Unconscious Learning 

Just as a teacher may teach without realizing that 
she is teaching, so also may a pupil learn without 
realizing that he is learning. The primal instinct of 
imitation is ever at work and lays hold on specific acts 
in the Sunday-school room as elsewhere. It catches 
hold of acts of expressions of feeling. A cheerful 
teacher is likely to have a cheerful class; pupils imitate 
their teacher as well as their fellow pupils. Moreover, 
lessons of reverence, of loyalty, of gracious manners, 
of promptness, of courtesy, and many of the lessons 
which are worth while to teach and to learn, are 
frequently taught and learned in the Sunday-school in 
an unconscious manner. This is the reason that per- 

[141] 



SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING 

sonality should be an object of such supreme interest 
and attention to the Sunday-school teacher. 

The Pupil's Personality 

The wise, thoughtful, and sympathetic teacher 
respects the personality of each of her pupils, his likes, 
and his dislikes, his opinions, and his possibilities. It 
is in her power to repress his personality or to prevent 
it, or to aid its natural development and growth. To 
stimulate it, to guide it, to direct and help it, all, 
perhaps, without appearing to do so, is the teacher's 
task. And this, we have seen, she is doing in a variety 
of ways. To achieve real success in Sunday-school 
teaching one must make it and keep it an interesting 
business, in which the powers of the teacher and the 
impulses of the pupil are so united and intermingled 
that useful and vital things may be successfully ac- 
complished. Such teaching should be morally and 
religiously useful and personally pleasant. This, how- 
ever, is an ideal that is not for the careless and 
indifferent. Only the man or woman who has the 
qualities which have been mentioned, or who is able 
to cultivate and develop such qualities, should enter 
the service of Sunday-school teaching. 

To Be More than Teachers 

We have repeatedly emphasized the fact that the 
ultimate purpose of Sunday-school work is spiritual 
and religious. It has also been said that the best and 
most successful teachers in the Sunday-school are more 
than instructors. They must be friends and pastors 
to the pupils whom they teach. It is, finally, in this 
latter relation that teachers in the Sunday-school have 
the excellent opportunity for exerting a purely religious 
influence, a part of teaching which is of such vital 

[142] 



THE TEACHER'S PERSONALITY 

importance. Fundamental conditions, as has already- 
been suggested, for exerting religious influence through 
the work of the Sunday-school are: genuine consecration 
on the part of the teacher, and a sincere personal 
interest in the religious welfare of those she teaches. 

Decision and " Decision Day " 

Rules which will apply universally by which teachers 
can influence their pupils religiously cannot be made. 
In nearly all cases, however, the problem is purely 
personal, and the good teacher will discover and use 
her own individual ways. However, the idea and the 
principle which underlie the so-called "Decision Day" 
can be used with gratifying results. This day should 
be preceded by private conversation with the pupils, 
by special personal invitation to participate in some 
form of the church service, or by other means which 
may suggest themselves, in addition to the usual work 
of the class. But this is not all; there must be some 
response from those who are being taught. One of 
the most important problems connected with all forms 
of teaching concerns the value that should be attached 
to the effective life. Facts as such can have but little 
value in the control of conduct. The great value of all 
emotional experiences is in the fact that new modes 
of behavior, new trains of thought which finally result 
in new actions, are made possible through the turmoil 
which the emotional experience causes. Sometimes 
nothing short of a mental cataclysm or shock will 
break up old ways of doing things and set up new and 
more useful forms of behavior and conduct. No better 
example can be given of the function of an emotional 
experience in making way for new adjustments than 
the religious experience seen in conversion. This 
experience is always personal and individual; and the 

[143] 



SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING 

teacher should by all legitimate means try to get her 
pupils to express their newly aroused emotional or 
religious feelings in some definite act, for without this 
there can be no permanent moral effect. And one 
sure test of the Sunday-school teacher's success is her 
ability to lift and to help sustain her pupils on a higher 
moral plane. In certain stages of their growth young 
people are especially susceptible to religious impulses 
when they may be won to an active intelligent Christian 
life or as easily alienated from it. The intelligent 
teacher will avoid the merely conventional and the 
trite religious exhortation which has been known at 
this time to deaden the youthful religious sensibilities. 
Real decision on the pupil's part, the deep emotional 
change which forms such a great epoch in his life, must 
not be forced. "The wise teacher will not only be 
patient, but will be quick to seize upon the moment 
thus made strategic by nature itself." 



SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY 

Books 

Angus, Ideals in Sunday-school Teaching, The Pilgrim 
Press, Boston. 

Huntington, Unconscious Tuition, A. Flanagan Company, 
Chicago. 

Hyde, The Teacher's Philosophy, Houghton Mifflin 
Company, New York. 

James, Talks to Teachers, Henry Holt and Company, New 
York. 

McMurry, Handbook of Practice for Teachers, The Mac- 
millan Company, New York. 

Palmer, The Ideal Teacher, Houghton Mifflin Company, 
New York. 

Trumbull, Yale Lectures on the Sunday-school, Charles 
Scribner's Sons, New York. 

[144] 



THE TEACHER'S PERSONALITY 

Weigle, The Pupil and the Teacher, George H. Doran 
Company, New York. 

Wells, Sunday-school Success, F. H. Revell Company, 
New York. 

Exercises 

1. What rules must a teacher follow in order to be an 
" ideal teacher" ? 

2. Should a teacher in the Sunday-school seek to be 
imitated by her pupils? 

3. What part of your experience as a pupil in the Sunday- 
school had the greatest influence on your life? 

4. Give examples of imitation in the Sunday-school 
which have come under your observation. 

5. What do you mean by the " personality of the teacher"? 

6. The qualities mentioned below are said to be implied 
in the term " personality " : 

Sympathy, Enthusiasm, 

Personal appearance, Scholarship, 

Address, Vitality, 

Sincerity, Fairness, 

Optimism, Reserve and dignity. 

After you have studied these qualities, tell which in your 
opinion are the most important, and which the teacher in the 
Sunday-school needs most to cultivate. Would you add to 
the list? If so, what? 

7. What effect does a moody teacher have on her pupils? 
A teacher of violent temper? 

8. What is the objection to saying " Don't " to young 
children ? What is a better way to teach them ? 

9. What is the first lesson in religion that a child should be 
taught? 



[145] 



CHAPTER XI 

Jesus as a Teacher 

A Master of the Art 

Almost every principle of teaching which has been 
considered in the preceding chapters may be illustrated 
from the teachings of Jesus. His method of teaching 
was natural, easily adapted to the circumstances and 
conditions under which he taught, and his teaching 
was "universal in its truth and eternal in its appeal." 
Moreover, his method was ideal, ideal because it was 
natural. The manner by which he prepared the minds 
of his hearers for the truth which he sought to teach, 
and by which he sought to get his hearers curious and 
anxious at the beginning to see the very thing which 
he sought to convey to them, is characteristic of all 
great teachers. Jesus always got "a point of contact," 
whether he taught the multitudes, the woman of 
Samaria at Jacob's well, or the young man who had 
great possessions. He knew how to stir the emotions 
of his hearers and to get their minds active. In doing 
this he always presented some concrete fact or situation 
which involved an issue. 

His Method Illustrated 

Notice the story of the creditor and his two debtors, 
and the story of the Good Samaritan. 

When Jesus was in the house of Simon the Pharisee, 
a sinful woman came and bathed his feet with her tears 
and wiped them with her hair. Simon seemed as- 
tonished and questioned the prophetic powers of Jesus, 
who said to him: 

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JESUS AS A TEACHER 

" Simon, I have somewhat to say to thee . . . There was 
a certain creditor which had two debtors: the one owed five 
hundred pence, and the other fifty. And when they had 
nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me 
therefore, which of them will love him most? Simon answered 
and said, I suppose that he, to whom he forgave most. 
And he said unto him, thou hast rightly judged." 

Continuing to make clear the principle involved, 
Jesus turned to the woman and said to Simon: 

" Seest thou this woman? I entered into thine house, 
thou gavest me no water for my feet: but she hath washed 
my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head. 
Thou gavest me no kiss: but this woman since the time I 
came in hath not ceased to kiss my feet. My head with oil 
thou didst not anoint; but this woman hath anointed my 
feet with ointment. Wherefore I say unto thee, her sins 
which are many are forgiven; for she loved much: but to 
whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little." 

The story of the Good Samaritan reveals many 
excellent principles of teaching: 

" And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted 
him, saying, master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? 
He said unto him, what is written in the law? how readest 
thou? And he answering said, thou shalt love the Lord thy 
God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, 
and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and 
thy neighbor as thyself. And he said unto him, thou 
hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live. But 
he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, and who 
is my neighbor? 

" And Jesus answering said, a certain man went down 
from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which 
stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, 
leaving him half dead. And by chance there came down a 
certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by 
on the other side. And likewise a Levite, when he was at the 
place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other 
side. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where 

[147] 



SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING 

he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him. 
And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil 
and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to 
an inn and took care of him. And on the morrow when he 
departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, 
and said unto him, take care of him: and whatsoever thou 
spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee. Which 
now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbor unto him 
that fell among the thieves? And he said, he that showed 
mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, go, and do thou 
likewise." 

The first story shows how well Jesus used concrete 
illustrations to convey meanings to the man whom he 
wished to teach a lesson. It is also to be noticed that 
the story and lesson are well in range of the experience 
of his pupil. But when Jesus had finished telling the 
brief, simple, but pointed story, he gives it an appli- 
cation which was far from moralizing: "Wherefore I 
say unto thee, her sins which are many are forgiven; 
for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the 
same loveth little." 

Further illustrations of the principles of teaching are 
seen in the story of the Good Samaritan. It shows the 
form of a good story; it shows how Jesus got a "point 
of contact" with his pupil, the lawyer; it illustrates 
the steps of "preparation" of the mind of the pupil 
for the lesson material, the "presentation" of the 
lesson, and the "generalization" or conclusion of the 
lesson. Several good questions are found in the story 
also. 

1. Jesus's ability as a story-teller is splendidly 
illustrated here. In fact the Gospels are full of this 
excellent method of teaching, a method which cannot 
be excelled with children from four to fourteen, and 
which is very effective with older people. The present 
one, like all the stones which Jesus told, is simple, 

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JESUS AS A TEACHER 

short, full of action, and to the point. Granted a point 
of contact, a good story, wherever found, is one which 
deals with action, has unity and continuity, embodies 
a moral or spiritual truth which is to be taught, and 
develops gradually from point to point until it reaches 
a climax. It does not carry a moral "tacked" on at 
the end, because moralizing spoils any story. The 
present one meets all the requirements of a good story: 
it develops gradually, takes account only of the essen- 
tials, and instead of putting a moral at the end, Jesus 
says: "Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was 
neighbor unto him that fell among the thieves? . . . 
Go, and do thou likewise." This is not a moral 
"tacked" on. Compare the strength of this story 
and the method used in telling it with stories and their 
application which we often hear. 

2. The principle of preparation of the mind of the 
pupil is also seen here. The mind of the lawyer-pupil 
appears immediately awakened and his emotions seem 
stirred by the questions "What is written in the law? 
how readest thou?" which Jesus asked of him who 
wished to know how to inherit eternal life. This is 
Jesus's method in this particular case of "getting a 
point of contact" necessary to teach the needed lesson. 
It will be seen that Jesus did not have to create interest: 
the lawyer is already interested in something. The 
teacher does not have to create but to develop interest. 
Jesus begins, therefore, with his pupil's present in- 
terests, and through these he seeks to teach. Notice 
also that Jesus did not attempt to give his pupil any 
new ideas; a working over of his old ones is what the 
lawyer here needs, and in getting this done, Jesus 
finally provoked from his pupil the vital, "pivotal" 
question, "And who is my neighbor?" Ability to 
make the pupil name and define the very thing which 

[149] 



SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING 

the teacher wishes the pupil to see is a primary mark 
of good teaching. And this is just what Jesus does in 
his "preparation" of the pupil's mind for the lesson 
material. 

3. The method which Jesus here uses in presenting 
the lesson to his pupil is known as the story-telling 
method. Jesus was not a lecturer. He told stories, 
used illustrations, cited concrete cases of the principles 
he wished to teach, and sought to illustrate the principal 
thought of the lesson. His teaching in the present case 
is simple, direct, and easy to understand. He unfolds 
the lesson material to the mind of the lawyer in lan- 
guage so simple that a child could understand: "A 
man was one day traveling along a lonely road when 
he was attacked by thieves who left him wounded and 
half dead. A priest came by, glanced at the un- 
fortunate man, but passed on without helping him. 
A Levite did the same thing. But a Samaritan passing 
by had compassion on the traveler and showed him 
mercy. Which one of these men was kind enough 
to be called the traveler's neighbor?" The pupil is 
thus led to see the central truth of the lesson he is 
learning. 

4. The "generalization" or conclusion stands out 
as the climax of the moral truth in the story. But 
Jesus lets his pupil reach it for himself; the lawyer is 
led to name and define the very truth to which Jesus 
wishes to draw attention. It has already been pointed 
out that the conclusion of a pupil, or his statement of 
the point of the lesson, if the lesson has been properly 
taught, will be the same idea or truth which the teacher 
wishes to teach, or the aim which she chose for herself. 
In this case Jesus wishes to teach neighborliness. 
"Who is my neighbor?" is the central thought, and 
this the pupil and not the teacher asks. The generali- 

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JESUS AS A TEACHER 

zation or conclusion follows naturally: "Which now 
of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbor unto him 
that fell among the thieves? . . . Go, and do thou 
likewise." And this is not a moral. 

5. It has already been shown that Jesus does not 
in the present lesson ask the "pivotal" question himself 
but that the pupil does it: "And who is my neighbor?" 
Ability to stimulate and provoke a question of this 
kind, around which the entire lesson material clusters, 
is evidence of genuine teaching ability. Notice how 
Jesus does it. He seems about ready to conclude with 
"This do, and thou shalt live," when the lawyer-pupil, 
whose emotions have been stirred and whose mind is 
now fully awakened, asks "And who is my neighbor?" 
Another splendid question in the lesson is the one which 
Jesus asked when he had concluded his story: "Which 
now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbor unto 
him that fell among the thieves?" Both of these 
questions meet the requirements of good questions 
discussed in Chapter VIII. 

Further Illustrations from His Parables 

The following parables are further illustrations of the 
principles which we have been considering. Note the 
absence of the abstract, the presence of the concrete, 
and how Jesus appealed to both the eye and the ear, 
thus making a double impression. The teacher in 
the Sunday-school, especially the teacher of children 
from four to fourteen years of age, could profit by a 
thorough study of the parables of Jesus, with a view 
to learning something of his excellent method of 
teaching: 

" And great multitudes were gathered together unto him, 
so that he went into a ship, and sat; and the whole multitude 

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SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING 

sat on the shore. And he spake many things unto them in 
parables, saying, behold a sower went forth to sow; and 
when he sowed, some seeds fell by the wayside, and the 
fowls came and devoured them up: some fell upon stony 
places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith 
they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth: 
and when the sun was up, they were scorched, and because 
they had no root, they withered away. And some fell 
among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them. 
But some fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, 
some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold . . . 

" Hear ye therefore the parable of the sower. When any 
one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it 
not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that 
which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed 
by the way side. But he that received the seed in stony 
places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with 
joy receiveth it; yet hath he not root in himself, and dureth 
for a while; for when tribulation or persecution ariseth 
because of the word, by and by he is offended. He also that 
received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word: 
and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, 
choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful. But he that 
received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, 
and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth 
forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. 

" Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, the 
kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good 
seed in his field; but while men slept, his enemy came and 
sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way. But when 
the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then ap- 
peared the tares also. So the servants of the householder 
came and said unto him, sir, didst thou not sow good seed in 
thy field? from whence then hath it tares? He said unto 
them, an enemy hath done this. The servants said unto 
him, wilt thou then that we go and gather them up ? But he 
said, nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also 
the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the 
harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, 
gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles 
to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn. 

" Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, the 
kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a 

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JESUS AS A TEACHER 

man took, and sowed in his field: which indeed is the least of 
all seeds; but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, 
and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and 
lodge in the branches thereof. 

" Another parable spake he unto them; the kingdom of 
heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took and hid in 
three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened. . . . 

" Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid 
in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth and 
for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth 
that field. 

" Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant 
man, seeking goodly pearls: who, when he had found one 
pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought 
it. 

" Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was 
cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind: which, when it 
was full, they drew to the shore, and sat down, and gathered 
the good into vessels, but cast the bad away. So shall it be 
at the end of the world: the angels shall come forth, and 
sever the wicked from among the just, and shall cast them 
into the furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing 
of teeth." 



These stories show his method as a teacher. His 
teaching here moves, as it does in every case, upon the 
plane of the experience of those who listened to him. 
His illustrations, too, are taken from the common life 
of the people; they were those things which were 
happening every day. How much more definite and 
concrete could teaching be than this is? The symbols 
and objects here used illustrate the ideas and the 
truths which Jesus sought to teach. He spoke freely 
of the field, of the ground, of the seed, the wheat, the 
thorns, the trees, the vineyard, the laborers, the sea, 
the fishermen, the net, the fishes, the merchant's goods, 
the habits of the house-wife, and of many other things 
which helped to convey the meaning which he sought 
to give to his lessons. 

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SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING 

Notice how vivid is the following: 

" If a son shall ask bread of any that is a father, will he 
give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give 
him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he oiler him a 
scorpion?" 

Jesus as a Questioner 

Several of the principles of teaching have already 
been illustrated from the parables and teachings of 
Jesus. Many others might be found. His ability as 
a questioner, already mentioned, may be further 
illustrated. We found in Chapter VIII that a good 
question is one which stirs the emotions, provokes 
thought, and stimulates mental activity. This is a 
striking characteristic of practically all of Jesus's 
questions. Study the following: 

"Whom do men say that I the Son of man am? And 
they said, some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, 
Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets. He 
said unto them, but whom say ye that I am? " 

" What man shall there be among you, that shall have one 
sheep, and if it fall into a pit on the sabbath day, will he not 
lay hold on it and lift it out? How much then is a man better 
than a sheep? " 

" What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose 
one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilder- 
ness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it? " 

When the lawyers and Pharisees to whom Jesus directed 
the question, " Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath day? " 
"held their peace" and answered nothing, Jesus said: 
"Which of you shall have an ass or an ox fallen into a pit, and 
will not straightway pull him out on the sabbath day? " 

A popular method of Jesus was to ask a question in 
answer to one put to him: 

"Tell us by what authority doest thou these things? or 
who is he that gave thee this authority? And he answered 
and said unto them, I will also ask you one thing; and answer 

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JESUS AS A TEACHER 

me: the baptism of John, was it from heaven, or of men? 
. . . And they answered, that they could not tell whence it 
was. And Jesus said unto them, neither tell I you by what 
authority I do these things. Then began he to speak to the 
people this parable." 

" Is it lawful for us to give tribute to Caesar, or no? But 
he perceived their craftiness, and said unto them, why tempt 
ye me? Show me a penny. Whose image and superscrip- 
tion hath it? They answered and said, Caesar's. And he 
said unto them, render therefore unto Caesar the things which 
be Caesar's, and unto God the things which be God's." 

The Secret of His Ability as a Teacher 

In a short chapter like this it is well nigh impossible 
to give an adequate treatment of the methods which 
Jesus used as a teacher. And an attempted explanation 
of this ability is not here necessary. Sunday-school 
teachers do not need descriptions of his methods of 
teaching so much as they need a knowledge of first- 
hand acquaintance with the methods themselves, which 
will come through a systematic and thorough study 
of those methods. A knowledge of his personality 
and character is also a great asset to the Sunday- 
school teacher, and this can be had in no other way. 
It is in this character and personality that we find an 
explanation of his secret as a great teacher. Every- 
where he is represented as a teacher of truth. When 
he was in Jerusalem at the feast of the tabernacles 
"he went up into the temple and taught." The Jews 
seemed astonished and said, "How knoweth this man 
letters, having never learned? Jesus answered them, 
and said, my doctrine is not mine, but his that sent 
me." This is explanation enough of his ability to 
teach; he knew the truth which he was to teach; he 
knew men, human nature in all its aspects, and the 
needs of all classes. This knowledge of human nature, 
his ability to see its needs and to adapt the truth 

[1SS] 



SOME PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING 

which he was teaching to these needs, are some of the 
things which help to explain his teaching ability. But 
this is not all. The great secret of his ability lay in his 
personality. He was the very embodiment of all 
that he taught; he was the ideal which he taught to his 
disciples, to the multitudes, or to the man who sought 
him in secret. Moreover, Jesus had faith in his mission 
as a teacher and as a leader of men. He had faith in 
the work which he was doing. He had faith in men, 
in their eternal worth and the possibility of their 
improvement, and through this improvement the 
advancement and establishment of the Kingdom of 
God. The lessons which the teacher in the Sunday- 
school can learn from his life and teachings are now 
obvious. A teacher must know the truth which she 
is to teach; she must know whom she is to teach, their 
needs, the fundamental differences in their tempera- 
ments, and how to adapt the truth to their needs. She 
must be consecrated, full of faith in her work, and in 
those whom she teaches. Without these qualifications 
and qualities there can be no teaching success. 

SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY 
Books 

Bruce, The Parabolic Teaching of Christ, Armstrong and 
Son, New York. 

Bruce, The Training of the Twelve, Armstrong and Son, 
New York. 

Haslett, The Pedagogical Bible School, F. H. Revell 
Company, New York. 

Hinsdale, Jesus As a Teacher, Christian Publishing Com- 
pany, St. Louis. 

Huntington, Unconscious Tuition, A. Flanagan Company, 
Chicago. 

Taylor, The Parables of Our Savior, Armstrong and Son, 
New York. 

The Teachings of Jesus in the Gospels. 

[156] 



JESUS AS A TEACHER 

Trumbull, Teaching and Teachers, Charles Scribner's 
Sons, New York. 

Trumbull, Yale Lectures on the Sunday-school, Charles 
Scribner's Sons, New York. 

Exercises 

1. Select from the teachings of Jesus other examples of 
good questions. 

2. Study the teachings of Jesus for examples of his knowl- 
edge of children. 

3. Make a thorough study of the life of Jesus from the 
point of view taken in this chapter, that of the Ideal Teacher. 

4. Make a study of the parables of Jesus and show how 
they meet the requirements of good stories. 

5. Study the illustrations which Jesus used and note the 
great variety of them and how they were taken from the 
common happenings of life. 

6. Study the Gospels with a view to finding evidence of 
Jesus's knowledge of human nature and of human needs. 

7. Find evidences from the same source of Jesus's faith in 
human nature. 

8. What substitute for " moralizing " did Jesus use when 
he had finished a story or parable? 



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